Route R
by alevel3mage
Summary: This story follows lelouch as he walks a different path. But the chains of destiny are strong how far is he able to pull himself away from what is meant to be? That is a far better synopsis than the old one.
1. Over his head - Chapter 1

**This is my first fic, and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

Chapter 1 – Over his head

December 19th 2016, Ashford academy's last day of teaching has ended and the Student council has just finished their final meeting. As the members move to leave Milly asks for Lelouch and Shirley to stay behind.

"Lelouch, about christmas day, it seems that this year my family will be going to an official party so we wont be able to meet up with you and Nunally, I'm really sorry about this." Milly begins.

"It's perfectly fine, we can just spend it together, no harm done." Lelouch states trying to reassure her.

"That's exactly what I was afraid of, you may be fine on your own but Nunally should not have to spend the holidays in only your company, I woulden't wish that on anyone. That is why I was hoping that Shirley might be able to have you guys over for Christmas." Milly replied,

"I'm pretty sure my parents would be fine with it" said Shirley immediately taking to the idea.

"It really is no bother, we will be perfectly fine." said Lelouch.

"Oh yeah I forgot to mention that we will be closing the dorms at noon christmas day. So you two will need to find somewhere else to be." said Milly

"This is the first I heard of this." Said Lelouch

"You should probably call your parents and ask them if it would be OK to have two more people for christmas." Said Milly to Shirley, clearly trying to go over Lelouchs head for this plan.

Shirley left the room taking out her phone as she walked out.

When she was out of the room Milly took out her own phone and called Sayoko, the maid who takes care of Nunally and says "Hello, would you mind putting Nunally on the phone I want to ask her something?"

"You wouldn't dare" says Lelouch, feeling backed into a corner

"Hey Nunally, yeah sorry about Christmas" Lelouch made a go for the phone, Milly evaded to the left. "I was wondering if you wanted to spend it with Shirley and her family instead of staying cooped up in the dorms?" Said Milly with a slight smirk crossing her face. Lelouch looked on with loathing in his eyes, "Really, great, I'll just tell Shirley and you two can head over there on the 25th. Alright bye." Milly looked at Lelouch and smiled, she had won.

Shirley re-entered the room and said "My mom said that it would be fine."

Lelouche looked at the ground defeated. They had managed to evade his protests entirely and now he was spending christmas at the Fenettes.


	2. Christmas surprise - Chapter 2

**I have actually had chapter 1 and most of this chapter sat in my documents folder for a while and couldn't be assed putting it online, After starting to READ fanfiction recently I decided to keep working on this one. The next chapter will be another short one then chapter 4 will be quite a bit longer. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

Chapter 2 – Christmas surprise

It's half past one in the afternoon, after finishing opening their presents Lelouch and Nunally had made their way to the Fenette household, however after a few wrong turns they were already half an hour late. As they moved away from the city center towards the suburbs the snow on the ground began to cause some problems for Nunally's wheelchair. They came to a halt about 400 meters from their destination.

"Well damn, your wheelchair looks like it's about to be written off, we will need to get you a new one later today." Said Lelouch cursing his luck.

"don't worry Lelouch" said Nunally trying to calm him down. "I'm sure it will all work out in the end."

Fortune seemed to smile upon them when a friendly stranger drove up beside them and asked "Hey are you two ok?"

"Not really" replied Lelouch. "her wheelchair is busted and we need to get to 38 Anderson drive."

"Oh, well hop in, I'll give you two a lift." said the stranger

"Really?" asked Lelouch

"Sure here let me help you get the lady in." said the man. "I'm Joseph by the way, nice to meet you."

"Lelouch, and this is my sister Nunally." replied Lelouch.

"It is a pleasure to meet you mister" Said Nunally.

The two lifted Nunally up and placed her in the back seat of his car. Joseph also took the wheelchair folded it up and placed it in the boot. The two then sat in the front of the car and they set off. Before long they arrived at the front door of the house. Lelouch went up and rang the doorbell as Joseph helped Nunally out of the car. A woman appeared in the doorway.

"Hello there, you must be Lelouch it is nice to meet you" Said the woman, "I'm Mary, Shirley's mother."

"It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am" replied Lelouch.

Joseph then took Nunally inside, and sat her on the sofa in the living room. Shirley came down the stairs saying "Lulu, it's been half an hour since you were supposed to be here, what was the hold-up." Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs she looks through the open double doors leading to their living room. "Welcome back, daddy."

"Wait a second, "daddy"?" said Lelouch just finally piecing it together.

"That's right Lelouch, The name is Joseph Fenette, Shirley's father." said Joseph, chuckling.

Mary closed the door and came back to the living room to give her husband a kiss. "I can't believe you had to work on Christmas, half day or not" Said Mary.

"Well you can't exactly say no when you are working under the viceroy." Joseph replied.

They day went on, at two pm they had a roast turkey dinner, when Lelouch was feeding Nunally, Joseph jokingly asked if Shirley was feeling jealous earning him a slap from his red faced daughter.

"It really was quite a shock when Shirley asked if she could have some friends join us." said Mary

"We are really sorry to impose on you like this, they closed the dorms today so we had to be out at noon." replied Lelouch.

"Oh it's no bother at all my boy, the more the merrier." Said Joseph. "I was a bit worried about the boy my daughter had as her phone wallpap-" A mouthful of turkey being forced into his mouth by his daughter silenced Joseph.

"Oh my Shirley, since when have you been so violent." Said Mary, also taking the chance to pick on her daughter.

"This is the worst." Said Shirley her head falling into her hands.

"I dunno, this turned out to be more fun than I was expecting." Lelouch said trying to raise her spirits a little.

"Lelouch is right, your family is so much fun." Said Nunally sweetly.

"Thanks guys" Replied Shirley. "Anyway why is it that you can't spend Christmas with your own parents?"

The pair looked visibly uncomfortable with the question

"It's" Started Lelouch "Complicated" he finished. "That's putting it mildly at least."

After dinner They were watching the emperors speech on the TV, Joseph and Mary were sat on the smaller couch and Lelouch, Nunally and Shirley were sat on the larger one. Nunally was feeling tired and dozed off whilst the emperor was going on about lost loved ones or something. She began falling and ended up resting on Shirley's shoulder. Lelouch looked ready to burst with jealousy.

"Well then, Lelouch, would you mind helping me out in the garage for a bit, that wheelchair of yours seems like it's falling apart and could probably use a bit of TLC if it is going to get you pair back to the dorms." Said Joseph standing up.

"Really, you know how to fix it?" Said Lelouch in shock.

"Well fix is a strong word, but I do know a thing or two about keeping machinery in working order". Joseph replied.

The pair stepped out of the room and made their way to the garage.

"So when are you planning on telling him?" Mary asked her daughter.

"What?" asked Shirley, confused by her mothers sudden question.

"It's pretty obvious you have quite a big crush on that boy, and I can see why, he does have quite the princely aura about him." Mary replied, taunting her daughter.

"Mom please just drop this." Shirley said desperately trying to avoid having a conversation about it.

"Alright, I'll drop it, but I can't speak for your father." Mary said with a smirk on her face.

Shirley moved to get up but stopped herself, right now Nunally was using her as a pillow, she would not be able to move until she woke up.

In the Garage

"So Lelouch" Joseph started, as he took some metal polish, some lubricating oil and a screwdriver from his shelf. "What do you think of my daughter?"

"W-w-well, she is a great person, always very cheery." Lelouch replied trying not to shoot himself in the foot.

"Not exactly what I mean but I'll take it." said Joseph, Lelouch knew what and how he meant what he said he was just trying to be careful. "Alright lets have a look at these wheels." Said Joseph opening up the wheelchair. It was a pretty simple model. Very minimalist, just how Joseph liked it. "Ok we are going to need to tighten the screws here, and oil up this bit, could you pass me the oil Lelouch?" Joseph asked as he spun the wheel a little, it squeaked quite loudly.

As the pair worked away doing maintenance on the wheelchair. Lelouch asked "So are you a mechanic or something in the government?"

"No, not a mechanic, I'm a scientist by trade, but an engineer at heart." Joseph replied with a chuckle. "Been working for the viceroy on a secret project for the past year or so, made quite a few breakthroughs so we are being invited to a new years party hosted by the viceroy himself."

"really, that is quite impressive" Replied Lelouch for someone of common birth to be working so closely with the viceroy this secret project of his must be very important, a new kind of knightmare perhaps?

"That gives me an idea, we get to bring three people along, and naturally my family will be coming with me but perhaps you could join us as Shirley's date?" Joseph asked.

"WHAT?" yelled Lelouch.

"Well the viceroy is a well known philanderer and he will no doubt set his sights on my Shirley if she is alone at the party, so I figured if she had a man with her then it might dissuade him somewhat." Said Joseph.

"Well when you put it like that it does seem like a far more reasonable request" replied Lelouch.

"And besides it's not everyday you get a girl's father ASKING you to take his daughter." Joked Joseph.

"And we are back on awkward avenue." said Lelouch his face going red.

The pair had finished working on the wheelchair and it looked good as new. Unfortunately though there was not enough room in the house for Nunally to try it out so they would need to wait until they got back to the dorms but none the less it was quite an improvement on the wreck they got the the house in. Joseph and Lelouch made their way back into the living room and sat down to watch some more TV.

At about quarter to 9 Lelouch and Nunally said their goodbyes to the Fenette family, Joseph was going to give them a lift back to the dorms since it was already dark out. As Joseph was out helping Nunally into the car, Lelouch was saying his goodbyes to the ladies.

"Thank you very much for having us." Lelouch said bowing his head.

"Oh not a problem you were both wonderful company. I'm looking forward to new years" Said Mary.

"What do you mean mom?" Asked Shirley.

"Didn't dad tell you, Lelouch will be joining us at the party." Said Mary, her voice sounded sweet but her face looked quite intimidating. "having a boy with you will keep the viceroy from putting his hands on our precious daughter he says"

"Well I'll see you on the 31st" said Lelouch moving to leave.

"Ahem" Mary coughed as Lelouch opened the door, Shirley just an inch behind him, preparing to close it behind him. The pair looked up and say some Mistletoe hanging above the door. This was the same spot that Shirley's parents kissed earlier today. Both the teenager's faces went very red. Shirley pecked Lelouch on the cheek "Merry Christmas Lulu." She said as she pushed him out the door and closed it behind him. Lelouch fell backwards and landed in the snow he looked up at the now closed door shocked.

BANG BANG "Come on Lelouch lets get going." Yelled Joseph from the car. Lelouch got in and they set off for the dorms. When Lelouch and Nunally got back to their room, Lelouch put Nunally to bed then went to bed himself, however he could not sleep "What on earth was she thinking?" Lelouch asked himself over and over again, the image of the red faced Shirley moments before she pushed him out the door. This was going to be a long night for him indeed.


	3. Variables - Chapter 3

**A reasonable human being:"Mage you cant post 4 chapters before the end of the year, it's the 30th and you're having a party on new years eve"  
Mage: "NOT WITH THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE"**

 **Chapter 4 is set on new years eve. Hence my rush to get it out by the new year**

Chapter 3 - Variables

 **Earlier on Christmas day**

"Hey joseph" said one scientist in a lab.

"Hey eric" replied Joseph to his co-worker "How is the subject looking."

"She's doing fine" The pair looked into the one sided window, inside they saw a woman with green hair sat in the corner. She looked phased despite the torturous experiments that she had been subjected to. "Can't believe we need to be in here to keep an eye on her even on Christmas"

"Well Clovis likes to make sure that the witch won't escape." Joked Joseph.

"You actually believe that." Mocked Eric "Come on lets order some pizza."

When the pizza arrived the pair of scientists ate it and killed time for a while, and their shift ended without a hitch. "Aren't you going to finish the pizza?" Eric asked.

"Gotta save room for Christmas dinner" Replied Joseph "Mary will kill me if I fill up on Pizza at work." He picked up the box and walked towards the bin. "Actually." He walked towards the holding cell.

"Joseph what are you doing?" Asked Eric, getting worried

Joseph took the pizza box, scrawled "Merry Christmas" over the top of it and put it the delivery box, There was about half a pizza left in the box and it wasn't anything on Mary's cooking but it is better than starving. Eric berated his co-worker for this act and the pair left the lab to the next pair of poor sods that had to work Christmas.

 **In the Akihabara ghetto.**

"And you are sure this information is legit?" Asked one member of the JLF

"Listen I wouldn't be telling you if it wasn't, the prince is having a party on new years and it is going to be wild, we will make sure of that" Replied the leader of this band.

"Where did you learn that from?" Asked another.

"Anonymous tip." Replied the leader

"Is that really something we can rely on?" Asked the last member.

"Here are the documents, all signed by the prince himself, there is gonna be a party, and he is gonna be there." The leader produced an array of documents detailing arrangements for this party he was having on new years.

 **That night in the government building**

"Well at the very least I got to be with one family member this year" The pink haired princess lay on her massive comfy bed lamenting it's size it made her feel quite lonely. "Stupid Cornelia, you didn't need to attack Warsaw on Christmas. You could have spent it with me." The princess ended up tiring herself out and fell asleep.

 **Told you it would be short**


	4. New years raid - Chapter 4

**Sorry it is later than expected, New years eve started earlier than i had hoped and I wasn't able to get any done, anyway I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

Chapter 4 – New years raid

Lelouch sat nervously in his room, tonight he was going to the new years party with Shirley and her parents. It was quarter to nine in the evening and Nunally had already been dropped off with the Ashfords who were having their own party. Milly had promised to take good care of her. That wasn't what was bothering him. What was getting him so riled up was the host of the party he was going to, the two had met before, Lelouch was worried about what Clovis would do if he discovered that he was at his party much less alive, the worst part was he couldn't even talk to the people who had been kind enough to invite him about this because it was a secret that less than 10 people knew.

The clock hit ten to nine and his phone rang. It was Shirley "Hey Lulu are you ready to go?" asked the chirpy girl on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah sure I'll be down in a minute." Replied Lelouch. He hung up and moved to the door. He locked it on his way out and went towards the gate of the academy.

When he got there he saw Mr. Fenette's car sat there. The family of three were in there, the adults in the front and their daughter in the drivers side in the back seat. As Lelouch approached the doors were unlocked and he stepped inside, taking the passengers side in the back seat. As he got in he got a look at Shirley, she was wearing a green dress nothing particularly attention grabbing but a pleasant sight none the less.

Before long they arrived at the building the party was being held in, the imperial summer hotel and were greeted at the door by a godsend, as far as Lelouch was concerned, Clovis had decided to make it a masquerade ball. When they approached the entrance they were handed a mask to put on. It was a disposable paper mask but it would do. Lelouch got a simple black one, no sparkles or anything, Shirley however was given a sparkly green one with feathers at the edges. It seemed quite excessive. Lelouch was about to step into the building when he heard a cough from behind him, Joseph and his wife stood with their arms locked, after they got Lelouch's attention they looked towards their daughter, he was supposed to be escorting her after all, Lelouch offered Shirley his arm, which she took with slight hesitation, and the pair entered the building.

The ballroom was excessive to say the least, the dance floor must have been at least 50 meters long and 20 meters across, there were two staircases just off the sides of the dance floor which lead up to a second floor looking down on the lower floor. Whilst there were many people who were very well dressed, there were more than a few of them who seemed quite out of place, no doubt the other scientists and the like that worked on the project Joseph was involved in, reasoned Lelouch, he was looking around the room trying to find who he would need to avoid at all costs, no doubt there would be more than a few people at a royal party who would know who he was, even if they hadn't seen him in 6 years. He noticed about three not including the host himself. Luckily the three were talking at the other end of the room and seemed to have no interest in mingling with the nerds that had been let loose on the party for some reason. Lelouch spotted a refreshments table. "Shirley, I'm going to go grab a drink, would you like one?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah sure" she replied seemingly dragged out of a daze.

Lelouch walked over to the refreshments table and grabbed two glasses of orange juice, Shirley isn't a massive fan of alcohol and they were still under age. He walked back towards his "date" to see another man speaking to her. He was tall, well dressed and had a very powerful aura to him, he wore a golden mask adorned with jewels, this was not the same as the paper masks given out at the door this one was fabric and very expensive. "My how beautiful you look young lady, green certainly is a wonderful colour on you" said the tall masked man to Shirley.

"Why thank you good sir." replied Shirley, she was very uncomfortable, she may have had a lot of experience talking to men but this was very different to how it was talking with Rivalz and Lelouch, this man was clearly full of desire. The music started up, it seemed to be an unfortunate coincidence to Shirley but Lelouch could see the man quite clearly signalling the band to play a waltz, the more observant would also notice that they stopped in the middle of a song to start a new one. "May I have this dance?" Asked the mysterious man.

"Erm, well..." Shirley had a hard time answering him.

"Sorry for the delay" Lelouch interjected just in time. He handed Shirley the glass and she took a swig, she kind of wished it was alcohol now since it might help her take the edge off a little from this encounter.

"Oh so you came here with your boyfriend then?" Asked the man, he had noticed that the boy was supposed to be escorting this lady, however the pair were hardly intimate, so he thought he may be able to drive them apart.

"N-" Shirley started.

"Yes, actually" Lelouch interrupted, he had seen this done before, it is a very manipulative way of getting someone alone. "Sorry if that puts a damper on your plans, old man" Lelouch used old man to describe someone who looked not a day over 20. This surprised even Shirley, who was still in shock after Lelouch called himself her boyfriend.

"How dare you" yelled the man, snap, Lelouch had managed to bait him into the perfect trap "Do you not know who I am?" he asked.

"No not at clue, after all, isn't this supposed to be a masquerade ball, shouldn't no one know who anyone is." Replied Lelouch, heads were starting to turn in the ballroom, the music was still going but no one was dancing. All eyes were on the man who was about to lose all composure at this child.

"Very well then, since we are after all 'equals' in anonymity tonight, we shall handle this with a gentleman's contest." Said the man in the golden mask, he was not happy about uttering those words but he would not be able to try and get another woman tonight thanks to this boys interloping and now he was pissed. "The loser has to leave the party, and must unmask themselves in front of everyone."

"Alright, but I get to chose what we play." Replied Lelouch, a smirk growing.

"Very well, chose your weapon."

"Chess, britanian rules, 1 round"

"very well" The man turned to some attendants, prepare a board. "This will not take long."

"Thanks for helping me" Said Shirley to Lelouch as the man went to get the match organised.

"No problem, It's my job to keep men off you tonight isn't it?" Replied Lelouch with a laugh.

"You don't need to go this far though." Shirley said, her words dripping with worry.

"Don't worry, the game isn't for you, he already was going to back off, this is for me." Replied Lelouch.

"What do you mean?" Inquired Shirley.

"I've not had a good match in years, I wonder if he has gotten any better?" said Lelouch as he walked towards the table he and the stranger in the gold mask would be competing at.

 **Due to not supporting the chess piece characters I moved the chess game to pastebin, with a tinyURL to link you to it easily, but I'm guessing you know the outcome.**

 **/RouteRChess**

"Well played" Said Lelouch standing up.

BANG an explosion is heard from the floor above them, "EVERYBODY GET ON THE GROUND NOW", yells a voice from the second floor.

"Terrorists, here?" screamed one of the guests.

Some chaos ensued, with all the guests scurrying around it took a while for the terrorists to get the hostages under control. In this time Lelouch was able to slip himself and his opponent into a supply closet without being noticed. "Well you managed to get me out of the line of fire for now, I guess I owe you that much." Said the man taking off his mask. "I'm guessing you already figured it out, but I'm Clovis la Britannia, third prince of the empire, the terrorists are definitely gunning for me."

"You never were much good at subtly" Said Lelouch, he kept his mask on, he was trying to avoid Clovis finding out who he was for as long as possible. He put his ear up to the door "Seems like they haven't shot anyone just yet, probably looking for VIPS among the hostages they were able to take. It seemed like there were only 4 of them and they all came from upstairs."

"You certainly do have a keen eye for detail boy." Noted Clovis

The prince looked at their surroundings, it was a supply closet, not exactly the ideal place to be during a terrorist attack. But maybe, Clovis got up and began moving around some of the junk. Perfect, he had hosted an art camp for talented young Britannian artists at this hotel a month ago and the supplies were all moved into this cupboard. Most importantly the craft knives, not exactly a knightmare but could probably do the job at close range. "Here" he passed one of the knives to the boy who saved him.

"Thanks, we might be able to." started Lelouch

"DID YOU HEAR SOMETHING FROM OVER THERE?" A voice came from outside the closet. Footsteps, growing ever closer. The pair looked at each other and nodded, they were going to jump whoever entered, the door handle moved. The door opened. A man walked in, he was clearly Japanese, in very little armour, but was armed with an assault rifle and a pistol. However that didn't matter to the occupants of the cupboard, they quickly grabbed him and covered his mouth. Clovis was about to go for the throat but Lelouch stopped him, instead Lelouch threw him against some supplies, they were quite heavy and not very well balanced, they toppled down on top of the terrorist. He was incapacitated. They took the weapons off him and moved back up to the door. Clovis took the Assault rifle, and gave the pistol to Lelouch. The loud clanking sound had done as was hoped and soon two other terrorists were at the door. They opened it very quickly and were immediately filled with lead. Clovis did not have the best trigger discipline but it ended up working to their advantage, this time. "AAAAH" this time a scream from outside.

"You in the closet, drop your weapons and step outside." Yelled the terrorist holding their gun to the hostages head.

"Alright" yelled Lelouch, he dropped the gun to the floor, making sure that it was audible, raised his hands and stepped out into the doorway. Lelouch got a good look around as he moved into the centre of the room. All of the guards had been killed, clearly they did not want anyone stopping them. Before long Lelouch was standing across the ballroom from the terrorist, she was the only female in the group, that he knew of. "So you were thinking of playing the hero then?" asked the terrorist.

"Really that is why you are doing this?" replied Lelouch.

"Don't answer my question with a question" yelled the terrorist. "I asked you if YOU were playing the hero? What the fuck does that have to do with me" A feint creaking sound could be heard from upstairs the terrorist pointed the gun at the hostages head. It pressed her pink hair up against her temple.

"Well clearly you are projecting your own fantasies onto me, look at you here, in a room full of evil Britannians, you can't wait to exact your vengeance on them for taking your country, you are going to take back Japan and give it to the people, like a real hero would." Said Lelouch, this had the desired effect and the gun pressed up against the head of the hostage was turned from her towards him.

"So you think you have me figured out huh, boy?" Said the terrorist, getting angrier and cocking the gun.

"Lulu, no" yelled Shirley, she was among the tied up hostages on the ground.

"What's this, have I got your girlfriend here?" Asked the terrorist sounding more confident, she threw the current hostage to the floor and moved to go grab Shirley. When a foot hit her in the face. Lelouch quickly went to Shirley and began to untie her. "Thanks for that Shirley" Said Lelouch.

"It's safe to come out now you majesty." The prince emerged from the cupboard. "Give me a hand here will you?" Suddenly a large group of soldiers moved into the ballroom, they went to each of the hostages and began releasing them. Needless to say the party was cancelled after that, Lelouch quickly slipped next to Clovis and said "You can take credit for everything, I think I'll just leave the party anyway." Lelouch then walked towards the door, A soldier moved to stop him but was signalled away by Clovis, then Shirley went after him.

"Lulu, where are you going?"

Clovis was on the verge of figuring something out, something important, but he didn't have the time because he suddenly remembered something else really important, the second most important person at the party. He looked all over the room and finally found her, she was being looked after by... "You there hands off her." Clovis yelled at one of the soldiers. The young recruit quickly backed off from the girl he was taking care off. Colvis then ran over and hugged her, "I'm so glad you are safe Euphie."

"I'm glad you are alive to Clovis but, that boy saved me, you could probably be a bit nicer to him" Replied the pink haired lady.

"Clovis, sorry I was just wrought with worry." replied the prince. "You there, soldier, what is your name?"

"Suzaku Kururugi, at your service your majesty" replied the soldier dutifully.

"Well Suzaku you have earned my gratitude, Consider yourself dismissed for the evening, I will find some way to repay you for this, in time" Said the prince.

"Thank you very much." Said the pink haired lady. "I too am deeply in your debt. Suzaku."

 **Back outside the gates of the ashford academy**

"Alright Lelouch, sorry about how tonight turned out but at least it wasn't boring." Joked Joseph, there was no laughter though, all four of them had seen people die tonight, it was not really a time for humor.

"Thank you very much for tonight anyway, and happy new year" Replied Lelouch sombrely as he prepared to step out of the car.

"Happy new year" the pair in the front said back to him.

"Happy new year lulu" Said Shirley, she gave him yet another peck on the cheek before pushing him out the car. "See you on Tuesday" she said out the window as her dad drove off.

 **Chess (britanian rules)**

 **As was shown in R2 when snizel made a move that put himself into check, the rules of chess in Britannia seem to be different from ours, namely allowing someone to take the king without moving it into checkmate so long as the opponent ended their turn without blocking the move hence Clovis' last move of the game here.**


	5. Back to school - Chapter 5

**"If there is one thing I learned in all my years on the internet it is this, Shitposting is an art"**

 **I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

Chapter 5 – Back to school

It has been 3 days since the terrorist attack at the imperial summer hotel, and the next term at Ashford academy starts today. Lelouch had spend the past few days with his sister, and trying to figure out if Clovis was onto him or not, it seemed like they were still safe for now, he hadn't dropped his mask until he was already in the Fenette's car so things were looking up for him. All in all he was looking forward to getting back into his normal life after all the craziness that happened over the holidays.

Lelouch walked into his class to a familiar sight, rivalz had been waiting for him all morning, "Hey buddy how were the holidays?, I heard you spent them with Shirley." Rivalz started putting his arm over his friends shoulder, and walking to his seat. "Tell me, how far did you get, first, second? Or did you make it to third in only 2 weeks?"

"No nothing like that Rivalz." Lelouch quickly retorted.

"Nothing like what?" Asked Shirley, she had just entered the classroom.

"Wel-" Lelouch tried to speak but his mouth was covered by Rivalz

"I was just seeing how well his holidays were." Rivalz covered his own ass, and Lelouch's simultaneously.

RIIIINNNGGGG

"Alright everyone sit down, class is starting" The teacher said entering the room. "First of all welcome back, I hope you all had a fun over the holidays, but be ready to learn, exams are right around the corner. Now then we have a new transfer student joining us today. In you come."

A brown haired boy entered the room, and it seemed as if all the oxygen left.

"My name is Suzaku Kururugi It is a pleasure to meet you all." Said the boy upon entering.

"Alright there is a seat near the door up the back, you can take that one." Said the teacher.

"Hi there, I'm Shirley Fenette, nice to meet you" said Shirley as Suzaku sat next to her.

"It's nice to meet you." He replied with a smile.

RIIING

Class had finished for the day and unlike with a regular transfer student there weren't throngs of students running up to ask him everything, however Suzaku was Japanese, and Ashford academy was a Britannian school, set up by Britannians, though there weren't any rules against honorary Britannians attending, it wasn't exactly common.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen you somewhere before." Said Shirley racking her brain trying to figure out where it was that she had seen Suzaku before. "I think it was recent."

"I'm in the military, perhaps you saw me whilst visiting family?" Replied Suzaku

"I don't think so, military?, perhaps, were you involved in the terrorist attack on new years?" Guessed Shirley.

"Well I was on the recon team, we slipped into the room whilst the terrorists were distracted by the gunshots." Replied Suzaku. "You weren't in that party were you?"

"Yes I was" Shirley was excited she figured it out, "Wait a second you, are the one that kicked the lady when she was going to grab me?"

"THAT WAS YOU?" Suzaku yelled that, before quickly calming himself down.

Shirley nods, people are staring now. Lelouch gets up from his seat and moves to the door, when he is in the door frame he pulls his collar up whilst looking in Suzaku's direction.

"I'm gonna need to get going now, I'll catch you later alright Shirley" Said Suzaku getting up from his seat.

"Alright then, I'll be at the student council office if you want to find me." Replied Shirley, she set off for the office herself, as she turned the corner to switch hallways she noticed Suzaku going up the stairs.

 **On the roof**

"It really has been a while hasn't it?" Said Suzaku walking up behind Lelouch.

"Who's feet did you need to kiss in order to get yourself here, last I heard you were in the military" Replied Lelouch.

"Well you heard about the terrorist attack at new years, right?" Said Suzaku, "I knocked out one of the terrorists keeping everyone hostage and ended up saving a princess."

"Wait what, I'm pretty sure only Clovis was at that party, there were more royals?" Questioned Lelouch.

"Yeah, a princess Euphemia, Anyway she said that she owed me one and after she learned that I didn't get to finish my education I got sent here." Answered Suzaku.

"Yeah that seems like the kind of thing she would do." Replied Lelouch. "So how is she doing after the attack?"

"She seems to have gotten over the shock of it, her sister is maniacally calling for her to pick a knight so that she will have a bodyguard but she doesn't seem to like the idea of having someone watching her 24/7." Suzaku said with a smile. "Oh right I just remembered, I was asked to go meet the student council once I got here, something about special arrangements for my military work."

"So you are still in the military then." Said Lelouch looking down.

"Yeah, but things are looking up, thanks to Euphemia, I'm working with the special weapons division now, much less dangerous, mostly just testing out new tech." Replied Suzaku "She's a great person."

"I know what you mean, anyway come on I'll show you the way to the Student council, I'm missing a meeting right now but I might barely get away with it if I'm showing a new student around" Joked Lelouch.

"Lead the way" Said Suzaku as the pair moved towards the door.

"Lelouch, you are late, very very late" Milly beat Lelouch over the head with a paper fan she had made from a couple of important forms. "It's a new semester and we have 40 students missing on the first day due to travel. We need to get letters sent to their parents that they are missing classes."

"We split them up so we only had to do 8 each." Said Nina.

"But since you are late we gave you one of ours each" Said Rivalz

"Except for Shirley, she didn't want to give you any of her work." Said Milly looking at Shirley checking for a reaction. Shirley was blushing, but trying her best to ignore it and get on with her work, it would have to do.

"Actually I was showing the new kid around." Stated Lelouch.

"Hi I'm Suzaku Kururugi, it is a pleasure to meet you. I was told to come here to pick up a form about military related absences." Said Suzaku.

"Hi I'm Milly Ashford president of the council, I think this form should be the one you need." She says as she unfolds her fan.

"I'll get him a fresh one" Lelouch says moving towards a filing cabinet.

"Anyway, it is school policy that all students take part in at least one club, so have you got any hobbies or interest?" Said Milly making conversation with Suzaku.

"Not really, I haven't had much time in the past few years to get involved with anything and I don't think any clubs will be keen to let me join them." Said Suzaku

"We could always use an extra hand around here." Said Rivalz, Nina looked a little cautious hearing this but remained silent.

"That could work. Any objections?" Milly said looking around the room, Lelouch had just handed the form to Suzaku, clearly he wouldn't be against it, Rivalz brought it up in the first place. Shirley has nose deep in paperwork, Nina was on the computer, she was clearly against the idea but wouldn't vocalise it. "Alright then, Welcome to the council Suzaku."

 **That evening**

"Whew, that was a tiring day." Suzaku entered his room in the barracks, after the new years attack he ended up getting quite a bit of favour thanks to Clovis and Euphemia, and now he had his own room, it wasn't particularly big but was far better than anything he had seen elsewhere in the barracks. Ring ring, his phone went off, he took it out of his pocket as he lay down on the bed. "Hello" He said into the phone.

"So how was your first day?" Said the voice on the other end, It was Euphemia, after the new years attack she had talked to him quite a bit, often she used him to vent, there was a lot of tiring things in Britannian politics, she needed an outlet and Suzaku was more than willing to oblige, she had done so much for him in only 4 days, it was unreal.

"It went pretty well, turns out the girl I'm sat next to in class was one of the hostages in the new years incident so she was able to break the ice for me with the class. Then I ended up joining the student council."

"That's nice."

"How was your day then Princess?"

"AHEM"

"How was your day 'Euphemia'?"

"I'm hanging up now."

"How was your day EUPHIE?"

"That's better, it was absolutely awful, after the attack Clovis is sending more troops into the ghettos to try and look for other terrorist cells, but he isn't being subtle at all, they are sweeping everything. It really breaks my heart to see this kind of thing happening."

"I know it sucks, but If it can help stop more bloodshed then there isn't much you can do."

"You're right."

"Well, who knows what will happen, you may get lucky and get to lead Area 11 your way in a few years."

"Yeah, Clovis doesn't seem to much like it here, I wouldn't put it past him that the only reason he invited me to come out here was so that he could leave me in charge of it and he can go back home."

"Well then I better get going, It has been a tiring day, for both of us, and unlike you I need sleep to look this beautiful."

"Your silver tongue will get you nowhere with me Kururugi, goodnight," She hung up the phone.

Suzaku lay back on his bed, he needed to get into his pyjamas, but was too tired to get up and change. "Shit." he thought.

Euphemia lay down on her bed, she turned over, there was a massive smile across her face, she wasn't sure what it was but whenever she spoke to Suzaku it just crept up on her. She turned to her bedside cabinet, there was a large binder, she picked it up and looked down the list of names, she had read through it many times already today, It was her only lead, but as she looked down the list she saw the same name, the one that held so many hopes and dreams, "Lelouch Lamperouge" It wasn't exactly a rare name, but this one just stuck with her for some reason. According to the attendance list for the new years party he was in one of the scientists "+3", A Mr Joseph Fenette, she would start her search there. Tomorrow.

 **Fenette household**

"Joseph, any word from your work yet?" Mary asked her husband who was lying on the couch.

"Nothing yet, can't believe it was attacked whilst we were all at that party." Replied Joseph, reading a newspaper.

"Was it anything dangerous you were working on, something people would want to steal."

"I dunno If it was anything terrorists would want but it certainly was interesting work."

"The increased army presence throughout the city has a lot of people on edge, clearly the viceroy wants it back."

"I can imagine why, he himself said that if word of our work got out then he would be disinherited."

 **And that is where we finish today, the next chapter will have far more twists and turns, and If I write for long enough we may finally have some god damn giant robots show up in this giant robot anime fic.**


	6. What is most important - Chapter 6

**Sorry no robots this time, but this chapter is "What is most important" I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, Something stupid happened where every line defined it's layout before the text, it was messy and awful, should be fixed this time.**

Chapter 6 – What is most important

"It's been a week since the attack, you majesty she could be out of area 11 now for all we know" Said General Bartley.

"It is indeed a shame, we were doing so well, destroy all the files, the building is already gone, and use plan D for keeping all those involved quiet." The prince said his head being held up by his right arm as he sat in a large chair. "It's a shame, but necessary."

 **Student council room at Ashford academy**

"I can't take it anymore, You two haven't talked since we got back to school." Milly yelled at Lelouch and Shirley. "Here, the computer lab is out of printer paper of something, you two go and get some." She handed Lelouch a note she had just written, and almost threw the pair out the door. "And I better not see you pair back here before 4." The door was slammed on the pair as they got their bearings.

"Well that just happened." Said Lelouch.

"She is right you know, we haven't talked properly." Shirley conceded to the president.

"Well then lets go get this paper for the computer club president, who's handwriting is eerily similar to our own president's" Said Lelouch heading off for the school gates.

"Not quite yet." Shirley replied

"Huh?" Lelouch was confused now.

"I need to get changed first, and so do you." Shirley said as she hotfooted it for her dorm room. "Meet at the front gate in 30 minutes."

There wasn't much Lelouch could do at this point. He went to his room and got some more casual clothes, he threw on a black under shirt, some grey trousers and a crimson jacket, his usual look.

"Do you actually think that will work?" Asked Rivalz.

"It's all just part of my long game." Replied Milly

Ring Ring

"I gotta go take this. Duty calls" Said Suzaku leaving the room.

"Alright then." Replied Milly dismissing him. She hit Rivalz over the head with a paper fan, he was balancing a pen on his nose like a seal. "We are 3 members down now, no dawdling."

"Hello there." Suzaku said answering the phone.

"Suzaku, I am at the Unity Centre mall right now, I need you to come and meet me here." Said Euphemia over the phone.

"Can I ask why?"

"Because I'm alone here and my brother will kill you if he finds out you left me here unguarded."

"And why would he think that?"

"Because that is what the note I left in my room says." She giggled.

Suzaku hangs up, pokes his head back into the council room.

"I need to go, RIGHT NOW. If I don't make it back, Look for me on the public execution's list."

He then ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the school gate.

"OK then time for us to get changed." Milly announced to the remaining members of the student council.

"What? But I though we had to get this done." Rivalz protested.

"This may be a once in a lifetime chance to see Shirley confess her love for Lelouch, this is more important than some request from the" She picks up the bit of paper Rivalz is working on. "Fan-fiction writing society" She puts the paper back down and marches out the room.

"Meet at the gate in 10 minutes."

Suzaku got to the Mall then he realised, he had no idea where Euphemia was in the mall, and this place was massive. He looked around to try and spot her by her unique hair colour but so many people all together made it an almost impossible task. Then his eyes were covered.

"Guess who?" Said a voice in the darkness.

"Don't scare me like that." Suzaku replied as he moved forwards and turned around. In front of him was a young lady with a brown hat on, there had been an attempt to put all her hair in it it failed but an attempt was made, wearing sunglasses indoors, she had a denim jacket over a black t-shirt, with a white skirt, she looked exactly like a princess trying to hide her Identity.

"You still haven't guessed." She said fake pouting.

"Alright then lets get you back to-" Suzaku started

"Actually I think we should go to that cafe over there." Euphemia said.

"Oh no, we need to get you back to."

"Oh and if you go against me then I'll tell Clovis this was all your idea."

"You royals are a malicious bunch you know that." Suzaku conceded the victory and began walking to the cafe

"And I'm one of the better ones." Euphemia grabbed his arm, looked at his face and smiled.

At this time Lelouch was standing at the gates of the academy, he was holding down a taxi waiting for Shirley to come over, she emerged from the dorm building and rushed over to him. She was wearing a green dress with an overcoat.

"Sorry I'm late" She said

"Well it's not like it really matters all that much, lets get going, there's a stationary shop in the unity centre mall, we'll go there." Lelouch announced.

"Sounds good to me." Shirley replied, as she got into the taxi.

As Suzaku had some tea and Euphemia a Hot chocolate, She didn't mind tea but hot chocolate just tasted better. They chatted away, then Euphemia brought up what had been bothering her.

"Actually since the Party at new years I've had something on my mind, one of the people at the party, I really want to see them again." Euphemia said.

"Oh really, and who would this person be?" Suzaku inquired. "If I can help you at all I will."

"All I know for certain is that they were called 'Lulu' by one of the girls at the party."

"I think that might have been Shirley." Suzaku interrupted. "She was the one that the terrorist went after when she threw you to the floor."

"That's the girl, how did you know here name?" Euphemia asked.

"She's in my class." Suzaku replied.

"Come on Lulu, the president's right we haven't talked properly since the party, lets just sit in a cafe or something and talk for a while." A voice yelled from the entrance to the mall.

"Oh speak of the devil." Suzaku said, lowering his head behind a menu.

Lelouch and Shirley walked over to the cafe and took a table. They each ordered some tea and began talking.

"So let's start from the beginning. Christmas." Lelouch said.

"I was wanting to start with new years but this is fine, Christmas was a great day and all involved enjoyed themselves, next." Shirley quickly moved on, she wanted to ask about Lelouch starting a fight with Clovis, and seeming to recognise him.

"Alright then, New years, Your dad asked me to come along to the party with you so that the prince wouldn't be able to hit on you. Which I did admirably I might add." Lelouch retorted.

Suzaku and Euphemia were entrenched in this discussion happening 2 tables over from them.

"That doesn't explain why you decided to get him angry, OR how you knew it was the prince in the first place." Shirley replied

"Well that is because he was the only man in the party who had their own personal mask, everyone else had the paper masks and I decided to get him angry so that he wouldn't throw us out the party, which in hindsight was probably a bad move." Lelouch was trying to keep his voice down.

"And then when the terrorists attacked you hid in the cupboard, took out 3 of them then emerged to talk with the fourth, distracting her before Suzaku saved the day, did you plan all of that or something?" Shirley was getting quite angry though she wasn't sure why.

Three people 1 male and 2 female entered the cafe, they were all wearing large trenchcoats and sunglasses, it looked like they were actually 6 children trying to sneak into a movie. They took the seat between Suzaku and Euphie's, and Lelouch and Shirley's. The latter pair were too engrossed in their argument to notice the three.

"Euphie what are you doing?" Suzaku said as the princess got up from her seat. She moved over to the table Lelouch and Shirley were at and said "Sounds like you two are having bit of a lovers quarrel." There were suppressed giggles from one of the three in trench coats.

"Well not exactly, but this Guy wont tell me the truth." Shirley said, she hoped to get this stranger on her side, She who controls the battlefield controls the battle. Shirley was going to get the truth from him one way or another.

"That's not good, you need to tell your girlfriend the truth." Euphemia taunted. The giggles from the three in trench coats grew louder, Lelouch finally noticed it.

"Alright, I'll tell you the truth, but not here, too many prying eyes." He said as he got up from his seat. Shirley followed suit, the pair left the cafe and the three in trench coats got up to follow them, it was at this point Suzaku stepped up.

"And where is it you think you are going?" He said with his hands on their two of their shoulders.

"Well, uh we were going to." One of the three said in a male voice.

"Same place as we are." Euphemia interjects.

"Really?" Suzaku asks, "haven't you caused enough trouble for them?"

"AAAAAHHHHH" A scream is heard from outside, the five rush out the cafe, and see some police officers arresting Shirley, Lelouch is protesting but his complaints are falling on deaf ears.

"What is going on?" Says one of the people in trench coats. She removes her disguise to get a better look, It was Milly, obviously.

"What is going on here?" Euphemia removes her hat and glasses and walks over to the police officers. "I demand to know why you are arresting this girl."

"Beat it lady, this girl has a warrant out for her, signed by the viceroy himself." One officer says to her.

"And her charges?" Euphemia asks.

"No clue, Clovis just wants her locked up." He responded.

"That son of a bitch." Lelouch blurts out.

"I'd watch that tongue of yours if I were you BOY." Said another officer grabbing his jaw. "You wouldn't want to lose it."

The officer threw Lelouch to the floor, and without another word they were off, with Shirley in tow.

"Lelouch are you ok?" Suzaku ran over to comfort his friend. He was in shock.

"I'm gonna fucking KILL HIM." Lelouch blurted out.

"I can't let you go that far, but he has definitely overstepped his bounds, any idea why he would do something like this?" Suzaku asked.

"Her dad was working for Clovis last year, he may know something that Clovis wants kept quiet. And he is willing to kidnap his daughter to keep him quiet, must be quite the secret." Lelouch answered.

"Well go and see what he knows." Said Milly, "Shirley is our friend too so well, go and talk to him, you rest up, you look a bit distraught."

"I'll take him back to the dorms." Suzaku said

"I'll go with you three." Euphemia said "I will not stand for this, this, Atrocity"

"That's great and all but who exactly are you?" asked Rivalz "You were on a date with Suzaku right?"

"I am princess Euphemia li Britannian, It is a pleasure to meet you all friends of Suzaku." Euphemia said.

"What, a princess seriously?" Rivalz was losing it.

"I'll go hail us a taxi, we will head Shirley's house now." Milly said leaving the group.

"You sure you will be ok?" Nina asked Lelouch

"Yeah, just a bit of shock really, Should be fine after some rest." He replied, Suzaku was helping him up.

"Lets get going then back to the dorms with you." Suzaku said as he carried his friend out of the Mall.

"I can walk you know." Lelouch protested.

"If I let you walk you would probably walk to the government building yourself, lets not run in blind." Suzaku retorted.

"you are probably right." Lelouch conceded.

 **In the taxi on route to the Fenette house.**

"So you are the princess that Suzaku ended up saving at that party then?" Rivalz questioned

"Yep, he looked so heroic jumping down from the second floor slamming into the terrorist with a spinning kick, just like a superhero from TV." Euphemia said.

"And that is why he ended up at our school then? You decided to send him there?" Nina asked

"Yep, he hadn't finished his education before he joined the military, he deserved to finish it." Euphemia said.

"That is very kind of you princess Euphemia, though I'm pretty sure you are the only royal that thinks like that." Milly said.

"I dunno, there was one half-sister of mine that would do it" Euphemia said " though she has been missing for years."

"That sucks, if she was half as cool as you then it is a real loss for everyone." Rivalz said.

"Thanks" Euphemia laughed.

They arrived at the house, Euphemia paid the taxi and the four moved up to the door, they rang the bell.

No response

They rang it again just in case. The door burst open

"HAVENT YOU ALREADY TAKEN ENOUGH?" there was a grown man in tears at the doorway.

"Oh I'm sorry I just got some bad news. How can I help you?"

"Well looks like new travels fast, we are some of Shirley's friends would you mind if we came in?" Milly asked.

"You may as well, I'm guessing you know her situation then?" The man said.

"Indeed and that is why we are here." Euphemia said "I am Euphemia li Britannian, I watched the police kidnap your daughter, What my brother has done is inexcusable. Please, I come here to ask for your help, what was it my brother was doing that made him so desperate to silence you?"

"He said that if I told anyone then he would kill Shirley, but if you really are a princess you might be able to save her for me. We were doing research for him." He started "On people"

Everyone gasped

"They captured a woman, known as 'The witch of Britannia' Apparently she was immortal and got her powers from a thing called 'geass' we were experimenting to see if we could replicate her powers, but there was far more to 'geass' than we could possibly imagine, the rabbit hole went deep and it went high, possibly all the way to the emperor himself, Since Clovis is trying to cover it up he has probably deleted all out findings from everywhere they were stored, he wants a lid on this ASAP. He would kill me if he knew I had this." He produced a memory stick. "Most people will brush it off as superstition and folklore, I'll be honest I don't even fully believe it and I spent a year of my life investigating it." He handed the Memory stick to Euphemia "Do whatever you like with it. Just please if you can, save my daughter."

"I will, trust me." Euphemia said, she then moved towards the door. "I'll handle this myself, you three keep her parents company, I'll get Suzaku and deal with Clovis, myself." There was anger in her voice, lots of it, this was something that not even Euphemia's own siblings had heard from her. Things were going to get serious. She walked out the door, the Memory stick in her hand, she went to the taxi waiting outside, she got in and went to Ashford academy.

 **In Lelouch's room**

"There now you get some rest." Suzaku placed Lelouch on his bed. "Don't worry, we'll get her back."

"I know we will." Lelouch replied.

Suzaku left the room and took a deep breath. He turned towards the exit and saw Nunally sat there, she must have come in just after them.

"Suzaku?, Is that you?" She asked

"Yep, it's me Nunally, it's great to see you again." he replied.

"It's been so long, what are you doing here?" Nunally asked

"Well, just this past week I started attending school here."

"REALLY? That's great, We haven't talked in so long," Nunally was clearly excited by this news. Her and Lelouch met Suzaku years ago when they were sent to Japan to live with the prime minister and his family.

"Yep, Ended up getting sent here by an angel."

"An angel?"

"Yep, She may look like a human to most people but I know for a fact she is definitely an angel."

"I'd love to meet her and thank her myself, anyone who would send you to us is definitely a good person."

"And I'm sure she would love to meet you too." Suzaku smiled at Nunally even although she couldn't see it.

 **Outside**

"Excuse me?, Oh Excuse me?, could you give me a hand with?" Euphemia was struggling to find where it was that Lelouch and Suzaku were. Of all the times to get stuck by something so trivial.

everyone seemed to be ignoring her, they were all in uniform so she probably looked like a crazy person that broke onto the campus. She finally gave up and pulled out her phone. "Suzaku, help, I'm outside the school but no one will tell me where Lelouch's dorm is."

"Well that is probably because a crazy woman showed up outside their school and is asking where one of their student's sleeps. I'll be right there Euphie." Suzaku said then hung up. "Sorry Nunally I need to go now, looks like my angel is a bit lost right now, but I'll come and see you again soon."

"Alright then Suzaku, take good care of Euphie." Suzaku blushed, Nunally certainly was Lelouch's sister, she didn't miss anything. Shortly after Suzaku left the room the door opened again.

"Suzaku?" Nunally asked the air.

"No I'm here to see your brother Nunally, I think he could use my help." Said the woman.

"Euphie, did you really just start asking everyone where Lelouch was as soon as you got here?" Suzaku asked as he walked back to his friends dorm room, with an embarrassed Euphemia in tow.

"We figured out what Clovis was doing, and why he kidnapped Shirley, but" She flashed the memory stick, "We have the ultimate bargaining chip right here." She proudly announced.

"Well we'll need to talk with Lelouch first, if we don't then he will likely show up and make a mess of things, he isn't at his best when he is distracted." Suzaku said.

The pair got to the dorm room and standing outside was Lelouch, he had the same mask he wore at the party on. "Alright you two look ready" He said.

"Lelouch I thought you were in bed?" Suzaku asked.

"I got a visit from a nurse and now I am ready to go." Lelouch retorted.

"Are you serious?" Euphemia asked.

"Deadly serious." Lelouch quipped back. "Clovis must be stopped."

 **Done for today, I have my own date to go to(hopefully neither of us will be arrested) Next chapter should come out before the Nighthold opens at least.**


	7. Checkmate - Chapter 7

**Nighthold opens in 5 and a half hours, for europe at least so I'm still, technically, on time. Please enjoy this chapter, and be sure to leave a review, Might try and get another chapter out before the end of january but I have other stuff to do so it may just be a short one.**

chapter 7 – Checkmate

Shirley sat in her cell, many of the others that were arrested at the same time she was were still making a racket as if it would do anything. The door to the block of cells opened, Clovis walked in "I am terribly sorry for calling you all here, but you see something has come up and I need all of you to be here for when I need you." He announced to the prisoners.

"You mean you need us so you can blackmail our families into silence about whatever it was you were getting them to work on." Shirley said, she wasn't afraid of the prince, she had seen him brought low before and knew that it could happen again.

"Oh my you seem quite the feisty, ooh, you are the girlfriend of the black masked boy from the party, I certainly do owe him a massive favour, he saved my life and what's more, let me take credit for everything, I didn't even need to silence him." Clovis retorted moving up to her cell.

"You seem to have forgotten that he embarrassed you at the same party, twice." Shirley said "And he doesn't seem to like you very much, even if you are a prince I wouldn't underestimate Lulu if I were you."

"Duly noted" Clovis said as he walked to the door. "I want that girl in my chambers in an hour." he said to a guard as he left. "Put her in something green, it certainly is her colour"

"Oh god, lulu hurry up." Shirley thought to herself.

 **In a car**

"So Clovis was performing experiments on people trying to learn more about this 'geass'?" Suzaku asked.

"Yep" Euphemia replied

"You seem awfully quiet Lelouch." Suzaku said looking towards his friend.

"It's nothing." Lelouch said turning towards his allies. They were on the march towards the enemy lines, It would be preferable to get this sorted without any bloodshed but Lelouch knew the severity of what Clovis was doing, Clovis was charismatic and proud but he was not smart, he knew that this research was going to be the end of him but he still went ahead with it, he needed to learn more about 'geass' himself if he is to be able to figure out what drove his brother to such lengths to have this power.

"Lets lighten up the mood a little." Euphemia said as she moved towards Lelouch. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ANYONE THAT YOU WERE ALIVE?" She yelled hitting him. She loved her brother, and she was glad he was ok but she still wanted him hospitalised for letting her think he was dead "AND IM GUESSING NUNALLY WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT DOOR AS WELL." Suzaku tried to stop her from hitting her but she had already calmed herself down, "Well whatever, I'm sure we can all have a long chat about this _After_ we save your _girlfriend._ "

"She's not my." Lelouch started speaking

"I'm pretty sure I saw you on a date, or was I wrong." Euphemia taunted

"That was not a date, the president sent us to get some printer paper." Lelouch stated

"Then why did you go straight to a cafe without any bags." Euphemia was winning. She had a massive grin on her face right now, she may be walking towards one of the hardest confrontations she has ever faced but she wanted to enjoy her reunion with Lelouch as much as possible

"Couldn't I say the same for you?" Lelouch had found his route of attack. "Calling Suzaku away from school so that you can meet for tea, Tell me was that a date too?"

"No it was nothing lik-" Suzaku interjected but was interrupted by Euphemia

"Yep, unlike you I'm not living in denial." Euphemia said. Lelouch was silent, that had struck a nerve, she was about to apologise but she was interrupted by their arrival at their destination. Euphemia led the way, she was the most familiar with the government building and her presence opened doors, doors that two students, one wearing a strange mask, would not be able to open. Before long they were outside Clovis' room. A scream came from the room and Suzaku busted the door down.

 **5 minutes ago**

"Welcome Shirley Fenette, take a seat." Clovis said his arms wide as Shirley entered the room, the guards behind her closed the door as she walked inside. "Come let us talk, I have much to ask you."

"Well then go ahead." Shirley said talking a seat across from him.

"First of all, your boyfriend, I need to know who he is, his name his family lineage everything you know."

"And why on earth would I tell you that?"

"Because If you don't then there will be dire consequences, for you and your family."

"Alright then" She took a deep breath, hopefully Lelouch would forgive her. "His name is Lelouch Lamperouge, He was born on the 5th of December, he attends Ashford academy as a favour from the principal, He has a younger sister and he does not keep in contact with any other family. There will that do."

"What is his sister's name?"

"Why the hell do you want to know?"

"A brother of mine once said, Good information is the key to defeating someone, He always knew where to get the information but never knew how, I however am a master at getting the information I need. Now then tell me."

"Nunally, his sister's name is Nunally, she is blind and in a wheelchair. She is the sweetest girl in the world."

"Nunally and Lelouch huh?" Clovis said walking away. "Well that certainly opens up a whole host of possibilities, what did you say their last name was again, 'Lamperouge' Certainly not a name I have heard before but I suppose I could ask around at my next party. Assuming of course he doesn't come here himself beforehand."

"Whatever you are planning will fail." Shirley said

"And how would you know?" Said Clovis walking towards a trolley. "Your father was doing some interesting research for me, dangerous research, the kind of research that even the emperor, my father, finds repulsive, and we made some fantastic discoveries, this was one of my personal favourites." He picked up a syringe from the table

"What is that?" Shirley yelled trying to move away

"Wouldn't you like to know" He grabbed her and injected her before she could get away, she screamed.

Crash. Suzaku busted the door down and Euphemia walked in behind him.

"Euphie what are you doing here?" Clovis asked as he placed the girl he just attacked down on the sofa.

"I'm here to stop you." She responded

"Oh and look what we have here, looks like she was right her boyfriend did come to save her. Shame you didn't get here 5 minutes ago, you might have caught her whilst she was concious." He said looking at Lelouch. "Don't worry she is alive, I think, She should be fine with some rest. However I think it is time that the 2 of us had a proper chat, Lelouch."Lelouch looked shocked as Clovis said his name. "Oh yes she told me about you, you, you sister, about how you don't keep in touch with your family. I know every little detail."

Lelouch began to look quite worried, had he figured out who he was, did he discover that Lelouch was actually his brother?

"Clovis why?" Euphemia interjected "Why have you done all of this?"

"Because there is so much power in this world yet to be gained, You may not be interested in matters of ascension, but I am, there is no other way for me to surpass Schneizel."

"Is that really all you want?" Euphemia pleaded "Power, you were never this mad before, what happened to you?"

"I became ruthless, because the game we play is ruthless, You saw it too, what happened to Marianne, she was a threat to the other consorts power, so they killed her, we all saw it, our mother's laughing as they discussed what they had done, THEY KILLED MARIANNE AND THEN THEY SENT LELOUCH AND NUNNALLY TO JAPAN KNOWING FULL WELL THAT WE WERE PREPARING FOR WAR WITH THEM! I want to become emperor to stop all of that, the power-mongering, the pain. Nothing we do now can bring them back but at the very least we should stop it from happening again." Clovis finished.

"You want to stop people causing pain, just look at the girl on the sofa there, how much do you think you hurt her, and her family, and the families of all the people you kidnapped? You wanted to make things better but in doing so you became the monster you wanted to destroy." Suzaku said his words clearly taking a toll on the already unstable Clovis.

"Normally I would challenge you to a game of chess here, humiliate you, then leave with Shirley. But today, I'm in a very bad mood." Lelouch said walking up to Clovis.

"Stay back" Clovis yelled.

"Euphie, Suzaku, you pair go find the rest of the prisoners and get them out of here, I got this." Lelouch said.

"Are you sure?" Suzaku asked.

"Just go, and leave him to me." Lelouch responded turning back towards Clovis. "Now then lets get to it." A right hook hit Clovis in the cheek. "That one was for the kidnapping." A second punch, this time going for the gut, "That was for injecting her with whatever that is." A knee to the face threw Clovis to the ground. Lelouch stood over him and removed his mask. "And that was for using my mother in you excuse."

"Lelouch, It can't be, you're alive?" Clovis was bleeding and shocked. Lelouch grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up. Lelouch's left eye began glowing red.

"You will forget everything about geass, everything about me, you will go back to the homeland and announce your concession of your claim to the throne, then you will never return to Area 11 again, do I make myself clear?" Lelouch said.

"Of course Lelouch." Clovis said, he sounded calmer than expected.

Lelouch picked up the mask and put it back on. He then grabbed the a second syringe from the table. At this time Suzaku entered the room, "You ok Lelouch?" He asked.

"I'm good, and Clovis should be fine too, eventually." Lelouch responded. "Anyway do you think you could give me a hand with Shirley?"

"Oh yeah sure, you are going to want to lift with your back and not your knees, if you had enough strength to do _That_ to Clovis then I'm pretty sure you will be carry your _girlfriend_ to the car." Suzaku responded laughing. Lelouch found a cap for the syringe put it on and then put it in his coat pocket. He then moved over to Shirley's unconscious body, she was breathing, thank god, but she was not going to move herself to the car, and Suzaku already left.

Lelouch first tried to squat to get down low enough to pick her up. This ended badly, he got his arms under her but was unable to get himself back up. He then tried bending over her to get his arms under her, but went to far and almost landed on top of her. He then noticed Euphemia in the doorway. "You might want to wait until she is conscious before doing that, it will make things far less creepy." She joked.

"Oh, if you have time to make jokes you have time to help me." Lelouch said.

Euphemia laughed and walked off.

He eventually got it, it took 15 minutes but he got it. Funny as it may have been to watch him struggle. They couldn't help but worry that despite 15 minutes of constant poking and nudging and lots of noise she still didn't stir. Upon reaching her parent's house they got her to her room. Joseph carried her up the stairs, Lelouch had trouble with the stairs in the government building and they were going down the way. Mary initially didn't let Lelouch into Shirley's room, but after she, Euphemia and Joseph had spent 2 minutes in there whilst Lelouch sat impatiently outside, restrained by Suzaku on multiple occasions. He was let in, the room was spotless, but seemed a bit empty. Lelouch didn't notice anything however he was more worried about the girl laying unconscious on the bed. He sat next to her worrying.

DING DONG

The house bell rang. Mary went to answer it, Suzaku went with her just in case. At the door there was a green haired woman in a unlocked white straight jacket. "This is the residence of Joseph Fenette right?" She asked.

"Yes?" Mary replied.

"I have a score to settle with him." She replied.

"We are kind of in the middle of something right now so if you don't mind." Suzaku said, he sensed intent in her words and wanted to err on the side of caution especially given the current situation.

The green haired lady picked up a box next to her. "I brought pizza." She said.

Joseph walked halfway down the stairs, when he saw her he said "You, what are you doing here?"

"You gave me some of your pizza, so I figured I'd come and give you some of mine." She responded.

"Actually you might be able to help here." Joseph said. "Let her come up. She might be the best shot at helping Shirley."

"Believe it or not that is the second time I've heard that today." She joked as she brought herself and the pizza inside. She walked up the stairs and entered Shirley's room.

"You, what are you doing here?" Lelouch asked

"Well I had pizza and brought it over to share it with Mr. Fenette." The green haired lady said.

"You know her?" Euphemia asked.

"Well it's-" Lelouch was cut off.

"This girl, what happened?" The green haired woman said urgently.

"Clovis injected her with something." Lelouch said.

"It was probably Eric's artificial geass formula." He came up with it whilst we were experimenting on her" Joseph said pointing at the green haired woman.

"Artificial geass?, That is extremely dangerous." The green haired woman said. "I can help her, leave me alone with her for a few minutes I'll tell you when you can come back in."

Everyone left the room, Lelouch seemed hesitant but he trusted this girl, after all she had already helped him before.

 **Earlier that day, in lelouch's room**

Lelouch as laying on his bed, he had just had his date kidnapped in front of him, he was angry, he was pissed, he was not at his best, he needed to calm down think it over rationally, get back his usual control. He was a mess, he never imagined losing Shirley would do this to him, Nunally perhaps, but Shirley, she was just a friend right?, Lelouch argued with himself, he still hadn't gotten a clear answer about her kissing him. He needed to think things over. The door creaked.

"Nunally?" He asked but it was not his sister, it was a lady in an unlocked white straight jacket with green hair.

"I expected to find you In a much less sorry state." She said.

"Who are you?, how did you get in here?" Lelouch asked.

"I am C.C" The lady responded

"Alright C.C Why are you here?" Lelouch asked again.

"Do you want power?" C.C asked

"What?" Lelouch was confused.

"I know who you are, I know who you hate, I know why you hate them, I want to offer you power? Tell me Lelouch would you like to become king?" C.C Asked

"What do you mean?" Lelouch responded with a question, he did not trust this woman.

"I can give you power, like nothing you could ever imagine." C.C asked

"I don't trust you, but this may be my best shot at helping Shirley." Lelouch said.

"Alright then." C.C said as she grabbed his arm. "Let us forge a contract."

 **Shirley's room present**

"Let's forge a contract." C.C said grabbing Shirley's arm.

"What is going on?" Shirley asked the blank room around her

"We are currently inside your mind" C.C responded

"Who are you?" Shirley asked

"Well me, I'm C.C, you certainly have needed a lot of saving today haven't you?" C.C joked

"What are you talking about?" Shirley was confused, a lot had happened that she missed out on.

"Long story short you were injected with an untested formula that gave you a thing known as a 'Geass' however since the formula wasn't perfect it is causing serious damage to your mind. I'm here to stop that." C.C said

"Alright what do you need to do?" Shirley asked.

C.C walked up to her "Lets forge a contract."

Shirley woke up, it was already night time. She looked around, she was in her room at her parent's house. Then it finally clicked, she looked to down and saw Lelouch, he was sat on a chair next to her but had fallen asleep and his head was on top of her bed. She went quite red.

"Shirley please wake up." He spoke in his sleep.

"So cute." Shirley said. She looked at him again. "This has to be another dream. Although, this is a much nicer one." She went very red then went back to sleep. Suzaku was asleep on the couch, Euphemia was in the guest bedroom, and C.C had already left, without saying goodbye to anyone.

 **I'll be honest I have NO idea what difference a story being "AU" makes, but I'm going to figure out and use it eventually. Not sure when though.**


	8. back where it belongs - Chapter 8

**Alright this is the last update of the month and the next one is due on the 14th, so look forward to it. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

Chapter 8 – everything back where it belongs.

It is now the 23rd of January, Shirley was finally back at school, everyone is asking her all kinds of questions. "What was the prince like?", "What did you do?", "How did you get out?" She expected as much but she wasn't really able to give good answers, after all she was asleep since after Clovis injected her with something, and it seemed to make her go unconscious, then she saw wild and vivid dreams at first they didn't make much sense erratic and chaotic, Then she came along, C.C. She called herself, and then, her dream became far clearer, there was less noise, she was inside the G-1, it was dark and there were only two men there. She couldn't hear what they were saying but before long one of them took of their helmet, he threw it to the ground, it was Lelouch, he was holding a gun pointing it at the other man there, she looked towards him, it was Clovis, he was terrified, then Lelouch shot him, Shirley tried to call out for him to stop but no words came out her mouth then she woke up, in her own bed with Lelouch next to her. She then heard on the T.V. That Clovis was not killed but had seceded. A new viceroy was being selected for area 11 at the time but it would take a while. Shirley was off for the next 2 weeks whilst she recovered, and when she got back she found that the president had worked the rest of the council to the bone to get the all the paperwork that needed done for the rest of the month finished before she got back. She now finds herself leaving the changing room after finishing her swimming practice, when she bumps into Lelouch. "Oh sorry about that." She says.

"Oh it's fine, are you feeling better?" He asks, t he pair hadn't gotten a chance to talk all day.

"Quite a bit better thanks." She replied "But I'm still a bit confused by a few things."

"Like what?" Lelouch asked.

"Well first of all what even happened after I was put to sleep?" She said. Lelouch looked uncomfortable.

"I don't think this is the best place for us to talk about this." He said. "Come to my room at 7 o'clock, we'll talk then. And we'll tell you everything." He then walked off.

7 o'clock ticked around and Shirley made her way to Lelouch's dorm room, she had been there before, when he was Ill the president sent her to go and check on him, of course she could have sent anyone else but Shirley's face when she was asked to go was quite the picture and Milly would never pass up the chance to make Shirley squirm. When she got to the door she knocked, it was Nunally that answered, "Come on in." Shirley entered the room, there was no sign of Lelouch but there were snacks on the table between two sofas, "Please take a seat, Lelouch will be back any minute now." She gestured for Shirley to sit down,in the wrong direction. Shirley sat on one of the sofas.

The door opened, Lelouch walked in, "Ah, Shirley sorry to keep you waiting." He said sitting across from her, Suzaku then entered the room followed by princess Euphemia, the pair sat on the sofas, Suzaku next to Lelouch and Euphemia next to Shirley, the pair had never met but Shirley certainly felt her air of dignity, she was someone important. "Well here we all are, Lets start with what happened after you were kidnapped." Lelouch explained what happened, everything from Euphemia and the council meeting with her parents.

"Alright so that takes us up to me meeting and him knocking me out with that injection." Shirley said condensing everything, "After I was knocked out how did I get from his room, to my one?"

"Well first we got into his room." Suzaku started.

"How?" Shirley asked, so far it made sense but them getting to the Viceroy's accommodation without any resistance raised many questions for her.

"We'll get onto that shortly" Euphemia said. "After we got to his room you were already unconscious on the sofa. Me and Suzaku went to go and find the other's that were being held by my br- Clovis, and get them out, Lelouch then beat up Clovis."

"Wait, Lelouch did?" Shirley was shocked.

"Yep, then he carried you to the car." Suzaku said.

"Then the green haired woman did something to you and a few hours later you woke up." Suzaku said.

"Wait the green haired woman, Called C.C?" Shirley asked.

"Yes, that one, you know her?" Lelouch said.

"Well kind of, I think, it was in a dream." Shirley responded.

"did she say anything to you?" Lelouch asked

"She offered me a 'contract'." Shirley said,

"If that's the case then you now have a geass, a strange power, I'm not sure what it is but we will find out." Lelouch said.

"And that takes us up to when you woke up." Euphemia said. "Now do you have any other questions?"

"Who are you?, you were at the cafe in the mall when I was kidnapped right?" Shirley said.

"There is a lot to that question, but to answer the second part, yes I was there." Euphie asked.

"What I'm about to tell you is top secret, no one knows it except for those in this room and the Ashford family." Lelouch said. "And it may change how you see me forever." Lelouch looked sad.

"If you want to back out now, then you are free to do so, just say the word and you can go back to your room and nothing will change." Suzaku said.

"If you are still the same Lulu that helps an elderly couple when their car gets rear ended, the same lulu that does his best to get home early every night to put his sister to sleep, the same lulu that beat up a prince to save me, then no matter what you are still the lulu I love." Shirley said. Then she covered her mouth and went very very red.

"So you love him do you?" Euphemia leaned towards her getting a good look at her face, she was enjoying the second hand embarrassment. "What do you say to that Lelouch?" She turned to her half-brother who was also in shock.

"Ill be honest buddy this really is not like you, usually you have someone figured out in a heartbeat, are you seriously saying that you didn't see this coming?" Suzaku asked.

"Even I saw it coming." Nunally finally entered the conversation.

Euphemia laughed, then Suzaku figured out the joke, the other two were too stunned to say anything.

"So I'll take that as a yes?, you want to hear the big secret?" Euphemia said cutting through the light atmosphere.

Shirley nodded, she wasn't sure she was ready for any reality shattering truths, but she wanted to know what it was the Lelouch was hiding.

"Lelouch are you able to talk?" Suzaku asked his friend.

"I'm fine, alright Shirley listen close." Lelouch said. He leaned forwards

"No sense beating around the bush here, I'll just come out and say it, I am actually a prince." Lelouch stated not a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"That is how I knew Clovis at first sight, Me and Nunally have been living in hiding for almost 7 years now. Our mother was the late consort, Marianne, however after her death we were sent to Japan as bargaining chips in discussions about access to sakuradite reserves, that is where we met Suzaku, after the war we ran into the Ashfords who were once retainers of our mother. They agreed to take care of us, and we have been living with them ever since. Naturally the president knows all this." Lelouch finished.

Shirley sat in shock, she was sat in front of a prince, one that she had just confessed her love to no less. She felt like running away, and acting like this was just another one of the crazy dreams she was having. But it wasn't Lelouch was actually a prince.

"I'm so sorry." was all Shirley was able to get out.

"What are you sorry for? You haven't done anything wrong." Lelouch said.

"I have acted so inappropriately towards you for so long, I had no idea." Shirley was panicked If she had only known she wouldn't have done and said half the things she had done and said to him.

"Look calm down you had no idea alright, and I'm still the same person alright so don't treat me any different just because you know who I am, we are trying to keep it a secret after all." Lelouch said.

"Alright then." Shirley was calming down. "But that still doesn't answer my question about you." She said turning to Euphemia.

"Well I'm his half-sister, princess Euphemia Li Britannia. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Euphie said with a smile. Shirley nearly fainted from shock.

"So you are in love with my brother huh?" Euphemia joked getting a good look at Shirley. "Well you certainly have the body, but your lineage may be a problem, perhaps we can sort your dad out with a knighthood or something." Euphemia looked serious as she said this, Shirley nearly fainted again.

"Euphie I don't think this is good for her at the moment, she has been through enough tonight lets just get her back to her room." Suzaku said.

"Alright then, you do it, I doubt she will be able to stand next to 'lulu' without being overwhelmed right now, and I have some catching up to do with Nunally." Euphemia said turning towards her half-sister. "We have only gotten to talk once since I found you again and I'm not missing this chance."

"Alright then." Suzaku said getting up.

 **The next day, at the government building.**

"Sister, I get that you want to be the viceroy, and god knows I think you will do a great job at it, but you still haven't finished your education." Said a voice on the telephone. "I'm just going to be in charge for two years, until you finish up ok?, now then did you get the papers from the school you picked?"

"Yes sister, I have them all sorted I start tomorrow." Replied Euphemia.

"Good, Work hard, I am a bit busy at the moment so I wont make it to area 11 until mid February so please try not to get in to much trouble before I get there."

"Alright then." Euphemia replied "Goodbye." She hung up the phone. She looked to her wardrobe and saw the uniform hanging there, this was going to be fun, she thought.

 **In the classroom at Ashford academy**

Shirley was not focusing well, her dream last night didn't help, especially since it came RIGHT after she told Lelouch that she was in love with him. A part of her wishes that the whole thing was a dream. After class Lelouch approached her, "You know we didn't get a chance to finish our date." He said, The whole room was aghast, ok now she knew this was a dream, but regardless she still got changed into a nice dress and head out for coffee with Lelouch, so at least it was a nice dream.

"Well Lulu." Shirley started, "Oh sorry, Lelouch." She corrected herself.

"What's up with that." Lelouch asked.

"With what?" Shirley asked

" I told you to not change anything about how you treat me right?" Lelouch answered, "So just keep calling me 'Lulu' like usual. It's cute."

Shirley blushed.

3 people in disguises looked on from around the corner at the cafe entrance. All extremely invested in the conversation the pair were having. Lelouch noticed them and turned to Shirley. "In fact I think we should change how we act with each other." He leaned in and kissed her, on the lips, she was shocked but quickly sank into the kiss. The trio at the door were halfway inside the cafe. "I may not be as certain about my feelings as you, but I think we should give it a shot." Lelouch said to a dazed Shirley.

"Alright." she managed to get out.

 **At the barracks.**

"Are you Suzaku Kururugi?" Asked a man in a lab coat.

"Yes." Replied Suzaku.

"Congratulations you scored the highest on the simulator and have been chosen as the new pilot for an experimental new knightmare." The man replied.

"Really?"

"No this is all a joke." replied the man sarcastically, "Of course I'm serious, now come on we need to introduce you to the team." The man grabbed Suzaku and took him away.

They entered a docking bay with all kinds of computers everywhere, however there were only two other workers there, aside from the one that grabbed Suzaku.

"Alright I've got our pilot right here." Announced the man as he entered the room.

"Lloyd you did ask him if he was ok with it first right?" said a lady walking up to them.

"Of course I did Cecile, he said yes." Lloyd, the man who kidnapped Suzaku, said.

"Really because the way you are holding his wrist makes it looked like you kidnapped him." Cecile said. "Anyway I'm Cecile Croomy, I'm Lloyd here's erand girl here at the Britannian special weapons division."

"The name's Joseph Fenette, I just got assigned here last week so I'm also new around here, nice to meet you." The voice came from a man on the second floor, he was looking down at them. "Hang on a second weren't you the one that helped Lelouch and the princess save Shirley?"

"Yes sir, I'm Suzaku Kururugi, It's a pleasure." Suzaku said bowing.

"Now then lets get you a copy of the manual, this right here is your new knightmare, We are still working on it so try not to break it too badly, though the new guy has a tallent for repairing things that I am certain are ruined so It might be fun to test him out." Llloyd said as he took Suzaku past the knightmare, it was amazing, like nothing he had ever seen before, and he was going to pilot it, amazing. "I can't believe so much has happened in a month." He said under his breath.

Beep beep

Suzaku's phone had a text notification. He opened it up, it was a picture from Milly.

"Holy shit." He yelled as he looked at it. Lloyd looked at the picture on the phone.

"What it's just some teenager's kissing." Lloyd remarked.

"These are probably people from Suzaku's class." Cecile said looking at the picture as well.

"Aw let me see." Joseph said heading down a ladder.

"NO way." Suzaku said closing the phone.

 **There I think that is everything back where it belongs. Hope you enjoyed it.**

 **"Now then where can I buy crates of chocolate on the internet?"**


	9. Interlude - Chapter 9

**2nd version of this chapter. It is amazing what an improvement writing in the daylight makes over writing at 1AM when you are tired AF.**

* * *

 **Not the chapter I intended to get finished for tomorrow, but hopefully I will be able to get it done today, for now this is something I felt like throwing into the story since it would have technically happened anyway just this way we get to actually have it appear instead of get referenced.**

Chapter 9 – Interlude

Wednesday 25th January

Lelouch sat in his classroom, waiting for lessons to start, things seemed to be going very well for him this year, he discovered that Suzaku was still alive, Met C.C and got his geass, Kicked his brother out of area 11 and then he got himself a girlfriend. It had been a good month. The bell rang and class started, people moved to their seats, The teacher entered to a room that was very excited, Lelouch hadn't noticed it yet but everyone in the class was talking about something, and he had no idea what. He spotted at the windows a royal convoy. A ROYAL CONVOY, What was going on, Euphemia promised she wouldn't sell him and Nunally out and he was pretty sure that Shirley wouldn't say anything either, Suzaku was sworn to silence as well, what on earth was going on, had they found him? Then she entered the classroom, euphemia wearing a Ashford academy uniform.

"Hello everyone I am Euphemia li Britannia, third princess, I will be attending this school starting today, please treat me as you would any other student."

So that is what she was up to. She took her seat and class began, the entire room was shocked and much of the lesson was forgotten. After class, no one ran up to talk to Euphemia, it was just to intimidating, she was a princess for christ sake, no one in their right mind would be the first to start a conversation with... Shirley walked up to her. "Hello there." she said. "Would you care for a tour of the campus?"

"I would love one." Euphemia replied gleefully. The two girls walked out of the room. Lelouch was in shock, as was Suzaku, but the pair knocked back to earth by Rivalz grabbing them from behind. "Come on we need to get to the council room, the president said she needed us to handle everything today because she is working on a secret project right now." He said pushing the pair out of the door.

As Shirley showed the princess around the school the pair did some talking. "So why is it that you came to this school anyway, aren't royalty normally taught in private institutions?" Shirley asked.

"Well that usually is the case and we were taught in private during elementary school when we reached high school we are to mingle with nobles more so most of us go to noble only schools, but there aren't any in area 11 so I came here." Euphemia answered.

"Well why not go back to the homeland?" Shirley asked.

"I like it here, and besides if I go back then who will keep an eye on my brother?" Euphemia jested, getting a reaction from Shirley, Euphemia then continued "He may get seduced by some evil woman seeking to use him to live an easy life." Euphemia laughed, Shirley looked down feeling very embarrassed. "I'm just messing with you." Euphemia said still giggling. "Just keep it rating at a 'T' at most and it will be fine." Shirley blushed at the thought of what would happen if they went any further. "Alright then, would you like to see what clubs there are next, you need to join at least one of them so would you like to look around?" Shirley asked hastily trying to change the topic.

"That would be delightful." Euphemia replied "Lead the way."

"This is the equestrian club, they don't much like me." Shirley said as the pair walked up to the stables, It was a large area with a few horses trotting around in a pen it was a very well kept area, a few people on horseback noticed them and then seemed to get angry.

"Why is that?" Euphemia asked curiously, looking at the girl as she got embarrassed.

"I made a mistake in the budget a few months ago and now they don't have as much funds." Shirley replied.

"What were you daydreaming about Lelouch at the time." Euphemia taunted.

"On to the next club." Shirley announced walking away.

"This is the football cub." Shirley said gesturing towards a football field full of sweaty teenage boys running around. The field was high quality but it had been torn up by studded shoes.

"Nope" Euphemia said.

"Horticulture club?" Shirley said as they walked into a field of plants, there were all kinds of herbs and spices growing here, many of which Euphemia recognised by name as components of poisons that she was taught to look out for, she could probably kill someone with the stuff in this field.

"Nah too dirty for me." Euphemia said dismissing the idea.

"Movie club?" Shirley said. As they walked into the room which had black coveing all of the walls, there was a group of people around a table, seemingly writing a script for their next 'Masterpiece'

"I'll put it down as a maybe." Euphemia said.

"Rugb-" Shirley started when they got to another field, there were 14 people all twice the size of Euphemia running around tackling each other.

"No way." Euphemia said noticing the blood dripping from one of the member's heads.

"Science club" Shirley said entering a dark laboratory, everyone wearing lab coats, There was a hum from where all the members were huddled around and suddenly a crash.

"Again, maybe." Euphemia said as she looked at a massive hole in the wall that they had made with this device.

"Fantasy Seduction club?" Shirley said uncertainly as the pair walked into a room full of women in fetish costumes.

"Why is this even a thing?" Euphemia asked picking up a whip carefully, before putting it back down after a quick inspection. There was a picture of Lelouch with a heart drawn in lipstick around him beneath it.

"I have no idea." Shirley responded as the pair quickly left the room.

"Swimming club." Shirley said as they walked into the pool room.

"This one seems good, I was always quite the swimmer." Euphemia said getting a little bit excited for the first time since the tour started.

"Really?, well that is cool. I need to go to the student council now, the president is working us hard today so she can put together her pet project." Shirley said as she took off.

"Oh I'll come along, Royals have a long history of handling boring paperwork. So I might be able to help out." She said.

"That explains a lot." Shirley said thinking back to how Lelouch seemed to do the work of at least 6 people when it came to the student council.

"Here we are." Shirely said entering the room. There was a city of papers on the desk, really, Rivalz got bored working and recreated the tokyo settlement using the papers. Lelouch was skilfully demolishing the city, taking out important infrastructure and filing it away where it belongs first, so as to cripple it before beginning the main attack, Suzaku was doing an admirable job taking on a skyscraper of his own but this clearly was not his calling.

"You are late missy." Rivalz said angrily, not taking his attention away from his current masterpiece, we have to handle this all by ourselves thanks to you.

"Wow and you are doing a fantastic job of it." Shirley replied passive aggressively.

"I can help if you don't mind." Euphemia said entering the room.

"Oh hey, it's the princess" Rivalz said. "Did Shirley rope you into helping us out in return for the tour?"

"Not exactly, royalty is trained to handle paperwork from a young age, comes with the job. So I thought why not put my training to good use." Euphemia said as she sat next to Suzaku and Shirley took her seat next to Lelouch. "Hi there, Would you mind demolishing that building over there?" Lelouch said as he continued working away.

"I'll get the subway over here" Shirley said, grabbing a pile herself. Nina was working away on the computer. Rivalz was carefully balancing the sheets, just able to put together the tokyo tower.

As the group worked there was little chit-chat, Shirley managed to get through most of the subway stations and took on the mall but ended up needing to be saved by Lelouch when she realised just how much there was to it. Suzaku managed to finish the skyscraper that he started but only that. Nina got through ten buildings but most of the work was done by Lelouch and Euphemia, who seemed to have turned this into a contest without saying a single word to each other. Every time one finished a sheet the other seemed to speed up. In this case most people would start making mistakes but these two had discipline of iron. Eventually they finished, in a tie much to the pair's dismay.

"Wow the two of you are monsters." Said Rivalz in shock. Lelouch looked at the windows, it was dark outside already,

"We would already be done if someone had helped instead of recreating the settlement using the papers." Retorted Lelouch.

Shirley laughed at this then said "I'm gonna head to bed now, I'm beat." as she got up Euphemia followed and said. "You wouldn't mind leading me to my dorm as well, I'm not quite certain where it is, apparently it's on the third floor?"

"Sure I'm on the third floor too, lets get going, tell Nunally I said 'hi' when you get back to your room lulu." Shirley said taking off.

"Sure" Lelouch said his face still on the table, he was extremely tired.

"I'll pop by tomorrow to surprise Nunally, so don't tell her I'm here yet ok?" Euphemia added

Lelouch rotated his head on the desk, allowing him to watch the girls leave, and then watch the president walk in with a sadistic look on her face.

"Wow you really did a number on that paperwork." said the president smiling.

"And it did a number on us too" Suzaku said "Thank god Euphie bailed us out."

"You got the princess to help you on her first day, you'll die alone if you treat all girls like that." The president said, walking towards an unconscious Nina, her head holding down the g key on her keyboard.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting her to help us out but it's just as well she did." Lelouch said. "I'm gonna head to bed now, I'll see you all tomorrow." He left the room.

"What were you so busy with anyway president?" Rivalz asked.

"That, you will find out soon enough." She giggled.

"Alright so here is the third floor, my room is that one over there, 316." Shirley said. Pointing down the hall towards a room at the corner.

"Oh that is cool, I'm also 316. Looks like we are room-mates." Euphemia said Looking at her letter.

"Seriously?" Shirley exclaimed nearly jumping.

"Yep, see here." Euphemia showed her the letter. It was genuine.

The pair walked down the hall. "Are you sure about this, I'm sure if you asked the dean he would give you your own room, heck if you asked really nice he may put you next to lulu and nana." Shirley said.

"Well this way I'll know whether or not you get back to your dorm at night." Euphemia joked

"Don't tell me you set this up." Shirley said as they got to the door

"I've never had a room mate before, I hope we get along well." said Euphemia as Shirley fished out her key.

"Likewise" Shirley said opening the door.

 **Sorry it's a bit short but I have been very busy, got new carpets, new desk, buying 3KG of chocolate for valentines day. I've been a very busy mage, hopefully I'll be able to catch up with the story in time for my next big plan. *maniacal laughter***


	10. Something in the air - Chapter 10

**Never before have I known myself to procrastinate to such a high degree as I did with this chapter, hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and trust me I really enjoyed writing this**

Chapter 10 – There is something in the air

Monday 13th Feburary, The student council had been told that there was something planned for tomorrow, something big, something that they were not warned about. The student council were given the day off for working so hard the past three weeks whilst the president worked on tomorrows event. Shirley was at the swimming club, a lot of the girls were asking about what was happening tomorrow but she had no idea herself.

"Honestly I have no idea, the president has been very secretive about the whole thing." She pleaded.

"Well are you at least going to take the chance to confess to Lelouch tomorrow, most girls are planning to anyway." One of her friends said. Shirley still hadn't told them that she and Lelouch were already a couple, she wanted to tell them, she wanted to tell everyone, she wanted the whole god damn country to know, that he was hers, but the problem was that Lelouch had her swear to silence the day before regarding his big secret, so she had to keep it under wraps, and to help keep the spotlight away from him she kept quiet about her relationship as well.

"Maybe." Shirley said, in truth she had been planning for valentines day since the 10th of December, his birthday, and had already had everything set out to best capture his heart. Only problem now is that she already had him, so now she just had to lock him down. But given what she had learned about him this year she was not so sure that she would be able to keep him indefinitely anymore no matter how much she wanted to. Despite this she was ready to try, she was ready for tomorrow and there was nothing the president could do to throw her off her game.

Suzaku is at work, they are planning to deploy the Lancelot into full combat testing sometimes soon so he has to be acquainted with what is going on with the machine to prevent any unfortunate circumstances from arising. "So Suzaku how is school going?" Cecile asked Suzaku as he took a short break from simulations.

"It's going pretty good, we have some big event going on tomorrow, apparently, not quite sure what though." He replied after finishing some water.

"Well it's probably got something to do with valentines day." Cecile responded.

"Oh yeah that is tomorrow, I wonder what the president has in mind then." Suzaku pondered.

"If it is on valentines day then it might have something to do with couples, speaking of which, have any of the girls at your school taken your fancy?" Cecile asked devilishly.

"Well there are two I would like to thank, but one of them is dating my best friend so I think I'll need to hold off on thanking her, at least for now." Suzaku responded.

"And the other one?" Said Cecile "Are you going to get her something?"

"Well..." Suzaku started talking as his cheeks began going red.

"Alright breaks over get back in the robot Suzaku." Lloyd said snapping his fingers.

Lelouch and Rivalz are getting back to how they always lived life, on the edge, well as edgy as you can get with chess, the pair had a few nobles gunning for rematches since the end of the holiday season and with everything that was going on Lelouch never had time for it but now he had a day and their schedule was full.

"Alright first on the list is lord Greymane." Rivalz said as they entered a hotel in the settlement, it was a very fancy one with gold railings for the stairs. "Our opponent is on the thirty sixth floor."

"Alright then, Rivalz who is next?" Lelouch asked getting up from his chair, his opponent looked on in awe at the state of the board, he had been defeated so easily, and by a child.

"N-No way." He said his burly arms nearly crushing the table.

"We have 3 more people to see today, coming to a total of 30,000 in prize money." Rivalz said.

"Is that really all you think about?" Lelouch asked.

"Princess Cornelia has successfully established area 16 and will be making her way here to serve as viceroy tomorrow." One noble said to Euphemia as she walked the halls of the government building. She was excited to see her sister again, being her only full-blooded relative, however she was worried that Cornelia would discover Lelouch and Nunally and force them to return to the homeland. She decided that she would do everything she could to stop her sister from finding them.

Tuesday 14th February, St valentines day.

The school was unsettled, there were many nervous glances towards the stage, all the student body was called into the gymnasium to watch the announcement of the days event. Lelouch was particularly worried, he knew the president, he knew what she was capable of.

"Hello Ashford academy." The president walked onto the stage wearing a pair of angel wings and holding a bow and arrow. Lelouch sighed, this was only the beginning.

"As you all know today is a very special day in our youths." She continued. "So today I have decided to play cupid, every student has been matched up 'randomly' with another, and for today you will be a team, so everyone pair up." There was a messy five minutes as everyone looked for their partner, Lelouch was not surprised in the slightest to see that Milly had paired him with Shirley. "random my left eyeball." He though to himself, before moving towards his girlfriend. He spotted that Suzaku and Euphemia had been paired as well, and it seemed that Nunally had been put with the sickly girl from lelouch's class, Kallen Stadfeld, She didn't seem like she would be any danger so Lelouch silently thanked the president for her 'random' selection.

"And now that you are all paired up, time for the main event." A group of teachers also dressed as cupids entered the gym with 30 or so pair's of pink fluffy handcuffs each. "Today we will have a couples scavenger hunt. The first pair to reach the goal will win a wonderful prize. Oh and also you will be handcuffed to your partner until you reach the goal, so you should probably try and find it."

The teachers were now blocking the doors, you were not getting out of here without the cuffs on. Lelouch accepted this quickly, "No sense protesting, we know how that goes whenever we tried it in the council, lets just play along." He said to Shirley, she was of a different mind though.

"Oh we will play along, and we will win." Something seemed to have set her off, she had a violent fire in her eyes, something that she wanted.

"Knowing the president, do you still want to come first?" Lelouch asked, "What if the prize is a..." Lelouch whispered something in her ear, This made her go bright red.

"Well that is all the more reason to win it, to make sure that it is properly destroyed." She near yelled, she then grabbed Lelouch by the writs and dragged him to the door. The pair were cuffed together and given a note. It read, "A mark left here unlike any other, is a work of art, not an act of malice"

"Easy." Lelouch said as he began walking towards where the point. TUG. He was stopped as he noticed that Shirley was still desperately reading the note. "Really, it's by far the simplest start they could give us." Lelouch said, come on follow me, he said grabbing her hand.

"Really Lelouch you already have it?" A voice came from behind them, It was Euphemia, she had a red faced Suzaku in tow. "Would you mind sharing the answer?" Euphemia was giving him puppy dog eyes.

"I'd rather not, just take a look at it, you'll get it soon enough." Lelouch said taking off down the hall. Shirley hurriedly followed behind.

They came to the art's corridor, there were two art studios in the academy, and between them was the president's response to graffiti, a free art board, anyone could paint anything they liked on it, amidst the constant phallic imagery and crude language there was occasionally some really quite good stuff on the wall. Today however there was another riddle written on the wall, 'Find me where the facts are sought and danger is wrought, but all is yet still safe.'

"Science lab." Lelouch said after finishing reading it.

"Oh at least let me try and figure it out myself." Shirley said getting annoyed, she wanted to impress Lelouch but he was too good at this.

"Don't worry I'm sure you will have a time to shine later." Lelouch said as the pair walked towards the science lab.

"Really Lelouch not even going to entertain the fact that people are following you." Suzaku said, in disbelief as he walked out from the corner that Euphemia had them hide behind. "I get that this is easier than trying to figure them out ourselves, but how do we win when we are just following someone else?"

"Don't worry I have a plan for that." Euphemia said dragging her 'partner' along with her in hot pursuit of her brother.

The Hunt was now in full swing, everyone had left the gymnasium and was doing one of three things, trying to work out a riddle, Following someone who seemed to know where they were going, or just randomly walking around trying to find the clues by chance. Rivalz seemed to be going for the latter tactic, him and his unfortunate partner were on the roof one minute and checking the first floor bathrooms the next. His partner eventually gave up and just sat on a bench protesting, Rivalz had to give up his dream of beating Lelouch to the prize, hopefully someone else will do that for him, just once he would like to see his friend taste defeat. He saw a large group of people tailing someone, he spotted the long orange hair of Shirley at the front of the pack and noted that it was probably Lelouch's followers, tailing him to get their cuffs off, a reasonable tactic, yes, but Rivalz levelled that if he just sat it out once the prize was won people would begin saying where the goal was so others could get their cuffs off, Lelouch would certainly tell Nunally at least and that was all that was needed for him to get his hands on the location.

After almost 2 hours of running around campus.

"Seriously how many clues are there, and they are all so simple." Lelouch was tired, not just of the running though that was begging to really get to him, but also how simple all of the riddles were, He stopped even announcing the location, just saying 'got it' and taking Shirley along with him, she would then figure it out herself on the way. She seemed to like this more, it gave her something to do other than just walking next to him. There were lots of people tailing them now, some of the girls seemed to be staring daggers at her, her man was popular that was for sure, They found themselves in the student council room, the last clue pointed them towards the underside of the desks in here. Lelouch tried to flip them over, but fortunately the crowd came in and did it for him. He probably would have pulled it off but it would have taken a while. "Old building. behind tree", was written on the underside of four of the desks in a row. The crowd looked towards Lelouch waiting for him to say 'got it' then head off, but that never came, The group dispersed once it was clear that this had him stumped. "There are no old buildings on campus" Lelouch said. Suzaku entered the room, followed by Euphemia, she was also very tired, seems that the royal types were not used to physical exertion.

"I have an idea." Lelouch said. Moving to one of the tables. "Shirely help me with this please" He said grabbing the legs of the table with 'building.' on it, Shirley did just that and grabbed the legs as well. "Ok now lift and we are going to move it to the other end." Lelouch said. Shirley just nodded, clearly Lelouch was tired but he was still trying his best, and Shirley still wanted to win, her drive wasn't quite what it was earlier, but that is just because now everyone was at the same stage they were, having Lelouch was no longer an advantage since everyone just followed him. But now she finally had a chance to help him out. They placed the table down at the other end and now it read, 'Old behind tree building.' "Can you see it yet?" Lelouch asked needing to sit down after moving the desk, it wasn't even all that heavy.

"Not yet." Shirley replied tilting her head a bit trying to see it from a different angle.

"I can, Suzaku be a dear and switch 'behind' and tree' around for us." Euphemia said sat in a chair next to the desks. Suzaku did just that, and with only one hand, Lelouch felt a bit of envy.

'Old tree behind building.'

"I know the tree it means, there is only one tree on the entire grounds that was here from before the academy was built" Shirley said.

"Good, lets go then." Lelouch said

"Where are you going?" Euphemia asked

"You've been tailing us from the beginning, so why not keep it up now?" Lelouch jested before heading off for the door.

"Your majesty, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Principal Ashford asked a purple haired lady as she stepped out of a royal vehicle.

"My sister chose this school herself so I figured I would see what kind of place it is for myself." The woman responded, standing up.

"I'm afraid you may have caught us at a bad time as we are currently having a whole school event go on, organised by my granddaughter, so you might not be able to see the school in action but I will be happy to give you a tour if you like." The Principal said desperately trying to make the school not seem like a playground.

"At the very least I would like to meet with my sister whilst I am here, she was meant to meet me as I touched down but this 'event' seemed to be keeping her occupied." The woman said, her commanding tone certainly encouraging the fear that was worn on the principals face

"Of course, princess Cornelia." The Principal said.

"EUPHEMIA LI BRITANNIA, to the principals office now please" The speaker systems sent out the message to the entire grounds getting quite a lot of gossip going on, 'the princess, being called to the principals office, what did she do, what was going on?'

"Well looks like our shadow's are out of the game for now," Lelouch said as he and Shirley reached the tree, Etched on the back of it was the final clue

"Find your goal where truth is told, and where the brave will dare not fold."

"I'm not too certain about this one." Lelouch said, looking concerned "I think there was a surveillance room in the basement, perhaps that is where the goal is."

"It might be worth a shot." Shirley said, the pair set off for the basement.

"looks like no one followed us here," Lelouch said as they waited for the elevator to reach the basement.

"People were probably too interested in why the princess was called to the principals office." Shirley remarked.

"You are probably right." Lelouch said. Ping the doors opened and they were greeted by a lit up hallway, this was a good sign, if it was dark they were probably going the wrong way. As they turned to corner to head towards the surveillance room they saw something they were not expecting. A group of 6 or so, Japanese rebels. Lelouch quickly ducked the pair of them back behind the corner, hoping they were not spotted.

"Something about this just feels wrong Tamaki." One voice said.

"Quit your whining, we have a hostage, we can get Ohgi out of prison with this, and since I'm your leader whilst he isn't here what I say goes, and I say we use the girl to get our friend out." Another responded quite angrily.

"But she hasn't done anything wrong, she is innocent in all this." The other replied.

"Kallen's right Tamaki, this feels wrong, this girl is blind and crippled." A new voice said.

"Nunally?" Lelouch said under his breath, he tried to remember who it was she was paired with, then he remembered. "Kallen Stadfeld." Lelouch said, this time out loud.

"WHO GOES THERE?" One of the voices yelled.

"Damn it" Lelouch thought. "If not for these stupid handcuffs he could tell Shirley to get out of here and get help" but now he was in too deep, and he had dragged Shirley along with him.

"Show yourself." The voice yelled again. Lelouch raised his hands and slowly walked out from behind the corner. Shirley followed next to him.

"So It looks like we have some curious students in here. What are your names?" One of them yelled, it was the voice of the one called 'Tamaki', he was carrying a gun.

"My name is Lelouch lamperouge. The girl you have over there is my sister." Lelouch said.

"Oh so you came looking for your missing sister then?" Tamaki said. "Ain't that just sweet. Now we have three hostages."

"I'll give you one chance. Let Nunally go now and leave this place and no one will know any of this happened." Lelouch said.

Shirley nodded in agreement.

"Any why should we, we are the ones with guns here, and what do you have, a pair of fluffy handcuffs, THAT ARE ON YOU I MIGHT ADD." Tamaki was getting a bit to into his role.

"Lelouch is that you?" Nunally called from her chair, she was at the back of the group.

"It's me Nunally,don't worry we are going to get you out of this soon." Lelouch responded

"Are you even listening to yourselves, YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING, I have your sister, I have a gun, you have your hands cuffed to someone else." This man was clearly not enjoying being ignored by his 'hostages'.

"Do you mind?, I am trying to speak to my sister." Lelouch said

"What are you doing Lelouch?" Shirely asked "These are real terrorists."

"I took down a prince, I think I can handle a couple of terrorists." Lelouch responded

"STOP IGNORING ME." Tamaki had had enough, he pointed his gun at Lelouch.

"You will leave this school, you will forget everything that happened and you will never come back, have I made myself clear?" Lelouch said, activating his geass.

"Yes my lord." Tamaki responded. "Come on we are leaving now."

"Why is he doing what that kid said?" Kallen asked.

"No idea, but if that kid is able to get Tamaki to do this much then just imagine what will happen if we didn't do as he said." Another one responded.

"How are we going to rescue Ohgi now?" Kallen asked desperately

"We will find a way, somehow." Tamaki responded as his team made their way out of the school through an underground tunnel.

"We should totally tell the president about that." Lelouch said.

"Please don't tell anyone." Kallen begged.

"I meant the tunnel, we should probably get that filled in." Lelouch said jokingly.

"Please tell me you are not serious." Shirley demanded "They took Nunally captive and you just let them go, what is your angle?"

"At least two of them were having doubts about what they were doing, and the rest seemed uneasy with what their leader was doing." Lelouch said "I don't mind letting rebels of the hook, but just this once."

"It's our fault the Japanese are like this isn't it?" Nunally asked interjecting into the conversation, as always she was thinking about the well being of others before herself.

"You have nothing to do with what happened seven years ago Nunally." Kallen said, going towards her chair. "You are by far the most pure-hearted and kind girl I have ever met."

"So what are we to do with miss Radical here?" Lelouch asked looking towards his classmate who had just taken part in his sister's kidnapping. "We can't really have a terrorist running around in our school now can we." Lelouch walked up to her. Looked her in the eye and said. "You will never do anything that will cause to harm any student or faculty member of Ashford academy, be it on school grounds or not." he used his geass to pacify her. Now she wouldn't be able to attack the school from within, at least not directly.

"Alright let's find that goal." Lelouch said reminding himself of their initial reason for coming down here.

"I just had a thought." Shirley said. "What if the place they were referencing was the #1 most popular place on campus to ask someone out."

"Why would that be the goal?" Lelouch asked.

"That should be obvious." Kallen intervened taking the handles on nunally's chair, walking towards the exit

"Still no clue." Lelouch said he was being tugged by Shirley towards the elevator now.

"Lelouch what day is It today?" Shirley asked him as they got into the elevator.

"Tuesday?" Lelouch answered.

"Which date?" Shirley asked him.

"14th of February 2017, why?" He said

"Lelouch, at the end of last month when the president announced the event she told all of the girls to tell her the name of the boys they liked, she then paired people up based on that, this way people get to spend valentines day with the one's they have a crush on then at the end of it, confess their love for them, It was a very cleaver ploy." Shirley said as they got out of the elevator.

"Then what about pairs like Nunally and Kallen?" Lelouch asked as they walked towards the location.

"Well that would be because I don't have a crush on anyone, and Nunally isn't really at the stage to be thinking about boys just yet." Kallen responded.

"And she won't be for at least another ten years!" Lelouch announced.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Shirley taunted "I was about her age when I first met you."

They finally got outside and saw a beautiful sight, all of the trees around were starting to get their leaves back, it was the perfect temperature, the sun was in just the right position.

"Wow you are right this does seem like the perfect place for a love confession." Lelouch remaked.

"Right, it's awesome, I had the perfect plan for it all as well." Shirley said, she then turned to Lelouch and looked him in the eye. "But then someone ruined all of my planning and asked me out first." She kissed him, this time she was the one surprising him, she pushed her lips into his, he began to fall into the kiss as it drew on, the pair of them quickly forgetting what was going on around them.

"What's going on?" Nunally asked Kallen quietly.

"She just kissed your brother." Kallen said, she wasn't going to tell her that it was still going on after 30 second, that would be a bit much for such a pure-hearted girl to hear.

Snap.

A picture was taken of the pair from the bushes. The president emerged and began shaking the picture to get it to fully develop.

"Ooh this one's nice." She said getting out from the bushes and going to the pair and undoing the handcuffs, they still didn't notice.

"ALRIGHT OVER THERE KEEP IT 'T'." An angry voice came from the doorway of the school.

Euphemia walked up to the couple and tore them apart herself.

"That was very dastardly you." She said to Shirley. "And you aren't exactly scot free either." She said to her brother.

"You might want to be a little careful yourself." Milly said, as she stood next to the princess and took out a picture from her bag.

"You are going to hold this over me for as long as I live now aren't you?" Euphemia asked.

"Well at least as long as one of us lives." Milly joked handing her the picture. "Keep it secret, keep it safe, and just remember, I have copies." Milly then walked over and undid the handcuffs holding Kallen to Nunally's chair.

"And then there were three." Milly chanted.

"So if you already have a photo then that means..." Shirley started.

"Yep, Me and Suzaku won." Euphemia said victoriously.

"Damn, what was the prize anyway?" Shirley said a bit annoyed but not entirely surprised.

"Just an all expenses paid trip to lake kawaguchi, for two, next month." Euphemia said.

"REALLY PRESIDENT?" Lelouch said. "With the budget already in the state it was you decide to go and make THAT the prize."

Euphemia handed the envelope with the prize in it to Shirley.

"Why are you giving this to me?" Shirley asked

"I'm a princess I can get an all expenses paid trip to literally anywhere I want, for as many people as I want, on a moment's notice, I just choose not to, most of the time." Euphemia responded.

Lelouch laughed, Nunally laughed, Shirley laughed, Milly laughed, Euphemia laughed, Cornellia laughed. WAIT CORNELLIA.

"Well I'll be, seems like you have made quite a few friends Euphie." She said walking out towards the group. "Tell me, did you not get the principals summons?"

"I was kind of tied up at the time and decided to finish what I was doing first." Euphemia responded.

"Would you mind moving this elsewhere, We kind of need this place vacant for the next couple." Milly asked the princesses making shooing motions and moving back into her bush.

"Shirley would you mind If I took her to our room?" Euphemia asked Shirley quietly as they moved inside the building..

"Sure, I'll just hang out at lulu's until she is gone." Shirley responded gleefully.

"Try and remember that Nunally is there as well." Euphemia whispered back "Alright then sis, let's head to my room." She announced to her sister and began leading her to the girls dorms.

"Looks like she didn't notice you two." Shirley said as she sat down on the sofa in lelouch's room.

"Seems that way, It's probably for the best, if Cornelia knew we were alive we would probably be sent back to the homeland." Lelouch responded he placed a cup of coffee down in front of her. "Good work today, We probably would still be down in the basement if not for you."

"Thanks." Shirley said as she began taking a drink. She looked at the tickets on the table. "So do you want to go?"

"HM?" Lelouch looked up from his own drink and at her.

"To the resort, we have the tickets, why not go?" Shirley asked.

"Well I don't really see any reason not to." Lelouch responded.

"So it's decided then. Guess we have plans set now. Let's hope we can keep to them." Shirley said.

Euphemia got a stern talking to, followed by countless hugs and finally she was freed, but then the unthinkable happened.

"So who is this boy in this frame over here?" Cornelia asked picking up a frame with a picture of Lelouch in it looking at it.

"That's my room-mates boyfriend. He's pretty popular so she is very proud that she managed to get him." Euphemia answered trying to make him sound as uninteresting as possible to her sister.

"Hmm." She put down the picture. Euphemia breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Well this certainly seems like an interesting school you have picked. But remember that you are going to be representing the royal family, so don't neglect your studies to mess around like today."

Cornelia left and Euphemia could finally breath. She had somehow survived, this time.

In the car on it's way to the government building.

"What an armed insurgency in area 16?" Cornelia screamed at her general. "Alright I'll be back over there tomorrow. Clearly they aren't the biggest fans of peaceful co-operation."

She took her seat again.

"Sorry Euphie but I'm going to need to take off again" She turned to the man across from her in the car "Bartley, I'm leaving tomorrow, the area is in your control until I get back."

"Yes my lady." Replied the general bowing his head. "It will be my pleasure."

 **I am currently working on another story at the same time as this one, an original work that will be up on fictionpress sometime this year, I hope you check it out once it is up**.


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